
Class __^A:fii!f_ 
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COFUREIGHT DEPOSIR 



BURROWS OF MICHIGAN 

AND THE 

REPUBLICAN PARTY 

IN TWO VOLUMES 
VOLUME I 



BOOKS BY WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT 



THE MOTH 
THE SPELL 
THE LEVER 
THE BACHELORS 
ROBERT CAVELIER 
GOOD OLD DORCHESTER 
THE PRINCESS KALLISTO 
THE FLOWER OF DESTINY 
THE writer's desk BOOK 
THE author's desk BOOK 
THE MADONNA OF SACRIFICE 
BURROWS OF MICHIGAN AND THE 

REPUBLICAN PARTY. 2 Vols. 



\ 




cJ^^I^Q-^-^^V^L.'^^ 



BURROWS OF MICHIGAN 

AND THE 

REPUBLICAN PARTY 

A BIOGRAPHY AND A HISTORY 



BY 

WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT 



VOLUME I 




LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE & 3oth STREET, NEW YORK 
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 

BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 
I9I7 






COPYRIGHT, 1917 
lY LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 



THE ■ FLIUFTON ■ PRESS 
NORWOOD • MASS • U-S-A 



NOV -5 1917 



©G1.A477395 






To 



BURROWS McNEIR 

AND 

THOMAS SHEPHERD McNEIR 

THESE EPISODES IN PATRIOTISM 

OF THEIR DISTINGUISHED GRANDFATHER 

ARE DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

THE personality of many men is best found in 
their private correspondence. The real nature 
of an individual is disclosed not by his vocation, which 
may be the result of accident or environment, but 
by the use he makes of his leisure hours. These are 
his own, and what he does within this limitation may 
fairly be taken as an expression of his personal choice. 
To keep a diary is an evidence of introspection. 

Senator Burrows was not a voluminous corre- 
spondent, preferring the more direct appeal of per- 
sonal intercourse. During his long life of National 
service he realized that each speech he made, each 
measure upon which he voted, was a record of char- 
acter which no man could escape ; and he preferred to 
be judged by his public utterances and acts. He had 
no avocation, for his life was entirely absorbed by the 
direct and indirect duties incidental to the important 
work which his Party intrusted to him. He was not 
introspective, and his diary is written upon the pages 
of the Congressional Record and in the stenographers' 
reports of his public speeches. 

vil 



viii PREFACE 

This habit of life, while clearly consistent with the 
man, has both lightened and complicated the labors 
of his biographer. There have been fewer inconsis- 
tencies to reconcile, there has been less secret history 
to disclose. Senator Burrows lived in the open, 
fought his battles in pubhc, and left to his biographer 
the pleasure of recording and analyzing rather than 
the task of explaining. This record covers so long 
a period and so many subjects vital to the evolu- 
tionary progress of the country, that to condense it 
even within the space of two volumes such as these 
has necessitated the utmost care in order to preserve 
the proportions without unduly affecting the true 
perspective. 

From those who knew Senator Burrows in action 
and who worked with him, have come many side- 
lights which have been of infinite value to the 
biographer in drawing his pen picture of the man, and 
he acknowledges gratefully his obligations to ex- Vice- 
President Charles W. Fairbanks, Senator Henry 
Cabot Lodge, ex-Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, and ex- 
Governor John T. Rich of Michigan; also to Dr. 
Davis R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, for his critical reading in manuscript of 
the chapters on Protection and Currency. Henry M. 
Rose, Esquire, now assistant secretary of the United 
States Senate, and for many years Senator Burrows' 



PREFACE ix 

confidential secretary, has given generously of his 
time and knowledge. Edward C. Goodwin, Esquire, 
librarian of the United States Senate, and Mrs. Jennie 
P. Andrews, of the War Department, have lessened 
the research labors. 

The writing of these volumes has not been a per- 
functory hterary task. The biographer has com- 
pleted his work with an increased knowledge of the 
influences surrounding those who conscientiously 
labor for the advancement of their country's interests, 
and with a profound admiration for those few who 
have proved themselves strong enough to hold closely 
to their plotted course. He has learned also how 
great a debt the present owes to those of the past gen- 
eration who built so firmly that basis upon which we 
must rest today if we are to endure as a Nation and 
stand as a World power. 

William Dana Orcutt 

Boston, October, 1917 



CONTENTS TO VOLUME I 

PAGE 

Chapter I 

Early Days. 1887-1862 3 

Chapter II 

The Soldier Husband. 1862-1863 87 

Chapter III 

The Soldier Husband. i863-i864 77 

Chapter IV 

Personal Reconstruction. 1864-1872 116 

Chapter V 

In Congress and Out. 1878-1878 i45 

Chapter VI 

Back in Congress, 1879-1885 171 

Chapter VII 

Later Years in the Lower House. 1 885-1 890. . . . 208 
Chapter VIII 

The Protectionist. i885-i888 286 

Chapter IX 

The McKinley Bill. 1890 264 

Chapter X 

Reciprocity. 1889-1902 279 

Chapter XI 

The Wilson Bill. 1894 807 

Chapter XII 

Currency. 1874-1896 822 



ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I 

Senator Julius C. Burrows, 191 i Frontispiece > 

Mrs. Maria B. Smith Burrows Facing page 8 

William Burrows 10, 

Boyhood Home of Senator Burrows 12' 

Mrs. Jennie Hibbard Burrows, i860 22- 

Julius C. Burrows, i855 26 

Julius C. Burrows, i858 26^ 

Captain Burrows, 1862 38' 

Representative Burrows, 1872 i44 

The Nast Cartoon on Burrows' Security of Elec- 
tions Speech, 1875 i58 

The Gillam Cartoon on Cleveland's Free Trade 

Message, 1887 2^6 

Cartoon — " Michigan's Si. George " So/j. 

Cartoon — "A Memorable Knock-out " 334 

Cartoon — " -Some Hope for Silver" 35o 



BURROWS OF MICHIGAN 

AND THE 

REPUBLICAN PARTY 



BURROWS OF MICHIGAN 

AND THE 

REPUBLICAN PARTY 

CHAPTER I 
Early Days. 1837-1862 

THE life history of Julius Caesar Burrows is so 
closely interwoven with that of the Republican 
Party that the one can never be told without em- 
bracing the chief events of the other. From its 
earliest days down to 1 9 1 2 he played some part, small 
or great, in nearly every important movement for 
which the Party stands accredited, and for thirty years 
he was one of its chief spokesmen in expounding its 
principles on the stump or in Congress. While never 
a leader in the same sense as was Blaine, Garfield, 
Reed, or McKinley, he ranked with these National 
characters in ability and statesmanship, and beyond 
them in his constructive usefulness to his Party. 
., "Under the oaks of Jackson," said John Hay, in 
his famous Golden Anniversary oration, "the 6th of 
July, 1894, ^ Party was brought into being and 
baptized which ever since has answered the purpose 

3 



4 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

of its existence with fewer follies and failures and 
more magnificent achievements than ordinarily fall 
to the lot of any institution of mortal origin." 

Burrows was in his eighteenth year when this 
historic event occurred, — a student in the Grand 
River Institute at Austinburg, Ashtabula County, 
Ohio. He had been born into an environment of 
outspoken devotion to the cause of freedom; he had 
been brought up on the diet of abolition, asking no 
greater entertainment than to listen to his father's 
impassioned discussions of the great political ques- 
tions of the day; he had found ample opportunity to 
watch the great contests of Parties and to hear the 
debates between their leaders, — and the newly 
formed Republican Party included him among those 
zealous young men of the North who joined it heart 
and soul, pledging their very lives to the prevention 
of further encroachment of the principle of slavery. 
The promulgation of the new political creed and the 
birth of the new political organization seemed to 
young Burrows nothing less than a summons to a 
crusade of righteousness, into which he threw him- 
self with the fiery impetuosity of youth, and with an 
intensity of unwavering devotion which abided with 
him throughout his long political career. "It was 
at that happy stage in the development of an insti- 
tution," says Thayer, when "its ideals, unsullied yet 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 5 

by selfish desires, justified the enthusiasm of its sup- 
porters. Its principles had the compulsion of re- 
ligion ; and rightly so, because they aimed at carrying 
out in the sphere of pubHc life the behests of private 
conscience." * 

We may not all agree with the theory that the 
Republican Party "has answered the purpose of its 
existence with fewer follies and failures and more 
magnificent achievements than ordinarily fall to the 
lot of any institution of mortal origin," but no state- 
ment could better express the conviction which pos- 
sessed Burrows from his earhest association with it. 
He was conscious of its weaknesses; but these he 
would have explained away as due to individual short- 
comings rather than to Party error. To him the 
Republican Party as an institution could do no wrong. 
When influential members cast discredit upon it he 
regarded them as traitors to their country; for was 
it not the RepubHcan Party which had preserved the 
Union, and which had repaired the one weak link in 
the chain forged by the founders of the Repubhc by 
abohshing the traffic in human flesh? 

We ourselves are too far removed from the day 
when Burrows' political convictions were irrevocably 
cast to appreciate how deeply the iron entered into 
the souls of men at that period. This generation 

1 Thayer: "The Life of John Hay," volume I, page 85. 



6 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

has fortunately never known and the past generation 
has been glad to forget the condition of actual hatred 
which then existed between the Republicans and 
the Southern Democrats and their Northern sympa- 
thizers. Parties in those days meant something 
more than a difference in opinion regarding Protec- 
tion and Free Trade. The RepubHcans, direct suc- 
cessors of the old Whig Party, looked upon them- 
selves as representatives of righteousness, and con- 
sidered their opponents as agents of the Devil in their 
disloyalty to the Union, in their tenacious insistence 
that the institution of slavery was justifiable, and in 
their determination to disrupt the Repubhc if neces- 
sary to accomplish their purposes. The Democrats, 
on the other hand, refused to recognize the religious 
aspect of the cause espoused by the Republicans, and 
could see in their efforts to restrain and later to de- 
stroy an established institution nothing but uncon- 
stitutional aggression, and an affront to be resented 
and rebuked. 

The birth of the Republican Party in 1854 crys- 
tallized the conflict between conscientiously formed 
but diametrically opposed judgments which had 
for years seethed within the breasts of thinking men, 
unsatisfied by the long era of compromise, and which 
when later brought to the surface could be settled 
only by the clash of arms. "The Republican Party," 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 7 

Hay said in the oration already quoted, "sprang di- 
rectly from an aroused and indignant National con- 
science. Questions of finance, of political economy, 
of orderly administration, passed out of sight for the 
moment, to be taken up and dealt with later on; but 
in 1854 the question that brought the thinking men 
together was whether there should be a limit to the 
aggressions of slavery, and in 1861 that solemn 
inquiry turned to one still more portentous, — should 
the Nation live or die? The humblest old Repub- 
lican in America has the right to be proud that in the 
days of his youth, in the presence of these momentous 
questions, he judged right, and if he is sleeping in his 
honored grave his children may justly be glad of his 
decision." 

No doubt ever existed in Burrows' mind that his 
decision was rightly made. The disappointment he 
experienced in the fact that he was too young to vote 
for Fremont, the first Presidential candidate of the 
new Party, found expression in his active participa- 
tion in the campaign, during which he made his 
earliest political speeches; and the defeat of his 
favorite only emphasized in his mind the necessity for 
further and greater effort to bring success to the ideals 
for which his Party stood. Four years later the Re- 
pubhcans nominated Lincoln as their standard- 
bearer. The ardor with which the young men of the 



8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

North threw themselves into this campaign has never 
been equaled, and contributed much to the successful 
outcome of the election. No one of these enthusiasts 
was more zealous than the youthful Burrows, who 
delivered impassioned speeches on the stump, and 
cast for Lincoln his earliest Presidential ballot. The 
election of the Republican candidate brought to Bur- 
rows the keenest satisfaction of his life ; for his ideals 
had been realized, and that was the justification of his 
consecration. Within two years the young enthusi- 
ast found further opportunity to give tangible evi- 
dence of his loyalty and devotion, for he was among 
the first to offer himself in the defense of his country. 
It is difficult for us who have learned the history of 
our Nation in the midst of comfort and safety to 
appreciate how deep-rooted become those lessons 
which are learned first-hand in the smoke of political 
controversy, or on the bloody battlefields of a civil 
war. It is easy for us, looking backwards, to criticise 
a Party which has from time to time been torn by 
internal corruption, and has indisputably erred in 
judgment: it is easy for us to question the sincerity 
of any man who stands by his Party through thick 
and thin for sixty years; but when one follows Bur- 
rows through these years of Party loyalty and dis- 
covers his unswerving integrity to principle, his con- 
stant fight against the individual betrayal of the high 




MARIA B. SMITH BURROWS 

Mother of Senator Burrows 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 9 

ideals for which his Party stood at birth, — all doubt 
of sincerity vanishes, and one is forced to admiration 
not unmixed with wonder that so consistent and so 
straight a path as his could be preserved. 

Julius Caesar was the seventh son of William Bur- 
rows, a native of Connecticut, and Maria B. Smith, 
who came from Massachusetts. They moved to a 
farm at Busti, Chautauqua County, New York, soon 
after their marriage, and later to Grahamville, North 
East Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania, where 
the namesake of the famous Roman Emperor was 
born on January 9, 1837. His name was always a 
source of mortification to him, but it was an expres- 
sion of his mother's fervid imagination, — an attribute 
which he inherited from her to a marked degree. 
The names of his six brothers and his one sister in- 
cluded Hannibal Hamilton, Jerome Bonaparte, Chris- 
topher Columbus, Sylvester Solomon, Adrian Addi- 
son, WilHam PJley, and Almeda. Once, a good 
many years later, some one asked Senator Burrows 
if his father was a student of history. 

"No," he answered; "but my mother was. I have 
detested 'highfaluting' names and titles all my life. 
I have invariably parted my hair on the side, and have 
been plain Mr. Burrows ever since coming to the 
Senate. It was a mistake to tag my brothers and me 
the way they did." 



10 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

William Burrows, of Scotch-English descent, was a 
sturdy specimen of New England manhood, a pro- 
nounced Free-Soil Whig in politics and a "hard- 
shelled" Baptist in rehgion; but we may judge which 
conviction stood closer to his conscience when we 
learn that when his Church attempted to criticize his 
outspoken opposition to slavery, he promptly trans- 
ferred his spiritual allegiance to another denomina- 
tion. As the boys grew up, the anti-slavery question 
was the leading topic discussed in their hearing. At 
home, it was as regularly a part of the daily routine 
as the morning and evening prayers, — each one of 
the seven sons taking his turn at reading aloud from 
the latest New York Tribune, which was the breath 
craved by Father Burrows' nostrils. In place of the 
theater or the photoplay of today, the boys found 
their chief diversion in the debating societies, but as 
tolerated listeners only, and many a thrill was expe- 
rienced from the heat of the debates between their 
excited fathers and elder brothers. 

Father Burrows did not believe in higher educa- 
tion, but he neglected no opportunity for his sons to 
hear every great political speaker who came within 
driving distance of his home town, and for them to 
walk ten miles and back was no unusual occurrence. 
One gala day in the Burrows household was when 
Fred Douglass, the colored orator, arrived at Graham- 




WILLIAM BURROWS 

Father of Senator Burrows 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY u 

ville in a buggy drawn by two horses, and became the 
honored guest of the family. Juhus was broken- 
hearted when his father declared that he was too 
young to be taken to the lecture which Douglass 
dehvered, but he drank in with wide-open eyes and 
bated breath the tales of slave life which the colored 
champion of his race related within his hearing. On 
the morning after the lecture, one of Douglas's 
horses broke loose, and with rare zeal the boy entered 
into the chase and capture, feehng that at last oppor- 
tunity had been given him to make expression of the 
sympathy which until then he had kept silently within 
himself. By aiding Douglass, he felt that he had 
taken a definite step toward freeing the slaves, and 
he enjoyed to the full the consciousness of his early 
consecration. 

Senator Burrows kept no diaries, but in twenty 
voluminous scrap-books he pasted clippings, letters, 
and memoranda from which the biographer has freely 
drawn. These memorabiha go back to i860, and 
continue without a break down to the year of his 
death. From time to time Burrows refers to his boy- 
hood life, and the following extracts, taken from 
interviews, letters, and anecdotes, when pieced to- 
gether afford a picture of the period which is of value 
and interest beyond their personal association: 

"I was born in a log-cabin," Burrows relates, "on 



12 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

the side of a hill in Erie County, Pennsylvania. My 
father built a new house when I was a child which I 
thought to be remarkably commodious and elegant. 
When we moved into it with our belongings it seemed 
entirely too large and oppressively lonely. I went 
back to look at the old house several years ago, keep- 
ing its stately proportions in mind as I had always 
remembered them; but I could not find it. I saw a 
weather-beaten little hut of one and a half stories, 
with three rooms downstairs and an unfinished attic. 
I was distressed and amazed to learn that it was the 
imposing palace of my childhood. 

"I think that my very earliest ambition was to be 
a preacher. When not more than five years old I 
recall distinctly my habit of getting the other children 
assembled on Sundays, or times when the old folks 
were gone away, fixing up a kind of pulpit of chairs 
and the wood-box, and then commanding strict atten- 
tion while I recited some verses from the family Bible 
which I knew by heart. 

"On one occasion three of us boys thought we 
would run away from home. The home-leaving was 
the bitterest time of my life. We went about a mile, 
and then realized we had no place to sleep and no food 
to eat. So we turned back and slept in the barn. 
When we came in to breakfast no one paid any atten- 
tion to us, — there were so many of us that we had not 




BOYHOOD HOME OF S E .^ A T O R 
BURROWS 

Erie County, Pennsylvania 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 13 

been missed. We were chagrinned not to be recog- 
nized as the heroes we felt ourselves to be. Finally 
Jerome, hoping to attract attention, assumed the 
attitude of the prodigal son, and said impressively, 
'Well, mother, I see you still keep the old dog.' 

"My six brothers and I worked on the farm, and 
attended the district school in Winter. I was always 
exhilarated and hopeful even in the sugar-bush, 
where, with a neck-yoke and two buckets over my 
shoulders, I followed my father and gathered maple 
sap from one tree to another. The cold wind 
whistled through the grove, and the mud, softened to 
an icy dough by the warmth of the water, clung in 
obstinate chunks to my cowhide boots ; but I was full 
of joy notwithstanding. At night I would sleep a 
little, and then get up to stir the maple sap and to 
rub the kettle with fat pork to keep it from boiUng 
over. 

"The favorite pleasure resort of all the people in 
that region was a deep abyss which was called the 
'gulf.' A very narrow path, made by the rains of 
many seasons and called the 'hogsback,' ran into the 
chasm. We boys used to play on the path at the 
risk of our limbs and lives, and to the distress of our 
parents. An eccentric character in the village of 
North East, not far away, announced that he would 
repair on a certain day to the 'hogsback' and die in 



14 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

the presence of all those who cared to leave their work 
to witness the unusual event. He dug a grave near 
by, and made other necessary preparations for giving 
up the ghost. The man spent a busy and cheerful 
day on the 'hogsback.' Toward evening, however, 
he withdrew, saying that he was sorry to disappoint 
the crowd, but manifestly he had blundered in his 
arithmetic. My father had been a skeptic on the 
proposition right along, and wagered with my brother 
Jerome, who was optimist enough to risk his only 
sheep on the result. 

"The performance on the 'hogsback' was one of 
the really great events of my boyhood. We talked 
about it for months, dating events upon it the same 
as if it had been a big wind or a kilHng frost. As an 
entertainment it beat the raising of a barn or a house, 
although on such an occasion there was much noisy 
joy throughout the day, and fist fights late in the 
afternoon. 

"In the course of time my father sold his farm and 
moved to Grahamville, — a very little town in the 
same county. We now lived in a house which con- 
sisted of a large main building, and two decidedly 
gorgeous wings. My father had a tract of timber in 
which his seven sons regaled themselves with axes 
when serious work was slack. He also had an inter- 
est in a tannery. He was a pushing and thrifty man, 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 15 

feeling his own need of an education and wanting his 
own sons to go to school." 

In 1844, during the Clay-Polk campaign, when 
Julius was seven years old, a mass meeting of Whigs 
was announced to be held at Erie, at which the great 
Daniel Webster would be the principal speaker. As 
in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign of 1840, 
this was a period of great popular excitement and 
elaborate political demonstrations. Like many other 
Whig farmers. Father Burrows harnessed up his 
great hay- wagon, with planks on either side to seat his 
boys and his neighbors, and the little JuHus, to his 
intense joy, was permitted to go. In the center of 
the wagon was a cross-piece which supported a pole, 
and on this was perched a live raccoon. The wagon, 
decorated with flags and streamers and drawn by four 
horses, started at three o'clock in the morning for 
Erie, thirty miles distant. A neighbor's wagon was 
drawn by forty yoke of oxen. "I can see them yet," 
Burrows relates, "switching their long tails, leaning 
away from their yokes, and walking pigeon-toed." 

As the great procession of wagons approached 
Erie by all converging roads the enthusiasm grew in 
intensity. The Burrows' wagon and other vehicles 
stopped in front of the tavern, where Julius joined his 
elder brother "Rome" in singing a Whig satirical 
song of the day, one verse of which was as follows: 



i6 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

''0^5 Jimmy Polk is a man of doubt. 
He wires in and he wires out; 
You cannot tell when on his track 
Whether he is going South or coming back." 

The proprietor of the tavern, an irate Democrat, 
rushed out, highly indignant over what he accepted 
as a personal affront, and threatened to shoot the 
entire Whig crowd, which by this time had joined the 
boys in singing the objectionable verses. The size of 
the party, however, overawed him, and he retired 
ungracefully, muttering anathemas while the crowd 
sang the louder. 

The great meeting was held in the open air in a 
fifty-acre lot, and the famous Webster, with his 
cavernous eyes and deep, bass voice, electrified the 
throng with his eloquent views on Tariff, Currency, 
and other issues of the day. Such gatherings, and 
such enthusiasm and personal worship, are now 
memories of the past, and can never be repeated in 
this age of newspapers and publicity, which repeats to 
the world the eloquent sentiments of the orator almost 
before they are delivered. 

This was the only time Burrows ever saw Web- 
ster, yet, young as he was, the experience made a last- 
ing impression upon him. "All I can remember," 
he relates, "is that he was a very swarthy man and 
that he made a speech." The early ambition to 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 17 

become a preacher changed at this point to an 
absolute determination to make himself a public 
speaker, and to enter public life. The extemporary 
pulpit of chairs and wood-box was metamorphosed 
into a rostrum, from which he now addressed his 
youthful audiences upon political subjects instead of 
the spiritual themes which had previously been his 
wont; and he modeled his delivery as closely upon 
that of Webster as a seven-year-old boy could. 

So the child developed into the boy-man at an age 
when most children are still playing with their toys, 
his mind centered upon the big things of life rather 
than upon trivialities. The evolution had been 
wisely guided at the beginning by a father who him- 
self took life seriously, and who taught his children 
their greatest lesson by the example he set them of 
devotion to a cause and sincerity of purpose in living 
up to every obligation imposed by the principles 
involved. The later influences under which Julius 
came could not have fitted more accurately into 
Father Burrows' scheme had he been permitted to 
control them, and the response made by the boy, then 
later by the man, gave evidence of his natural tend- 
ency toward the work to which he devoted his life. 

Of the other sons, two also responded to the early 
influences by going into politics, but to a lesser degree 
than their more famous brother. Jerome Bonaparte 



i8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

Burrows became a distinguished lawyer, and later a 
judge of the supreme court of Ohio. He was a resi- 
dent of Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, which town- 
ship adjoins Mentor, where was the home of James A. 
Garfield, and between these two men there existed 
the most intense political rivalry, both being candi- 
dates for Congress from the famous "Nineteenth Dis- 
trict." Many thought Jerome Burrows had the 
better chance of election, but his previous persistent 
and successful efforts to secure an acquittal of a client 
in a long-celebrated case cost him the support of Ash- 
tabula County, and Garfield was elected. Had 
Jerome Burrows won in this seemingly local contest, 
it would have changed the history of the United 
States, as Garfield would probably have been un- 
known beyond the limits of his own State. 

Sylvester Solomon Burrows became a practicing 
physician, but he possessed many of the attributes 
which make a statesman. He lived in Geneva, Ash- 
tabula County, Ohio, which is about fifteen miles east 
of Painesville. For some years he served his con- 
stituents as a member of the State senate, where he 
made a reputation as a debater, and demonstrated a 
ready understanding of parliamentary law and usage. 
Dr. Burrows was a man who always had the courage 
of his convictions, and, with him, as with Jerome, 
pohcy was a matter of secondary consideration. 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 19 

Although an ardent Repubhcan, unhke his 
brothers Dr. Burrows embraced the doctrine of Free 
Silver. When the Repubhcan Committee of Ohio 
summoned Senator Burrows into the State to speak in 
behalf of Bushnell and Hanna, the Senator found his 
brother making Free Silver speeches of the most rabid 
nature. Whenever Juhus made a "Sound Money" 
speech, his brother followed the next day, contesting 
every point. The Saturday night before election 
Senator Burrows addressed a monster Repubhcan 
meeting in Music Hall, Cleveland. Dr. Burrows 
announced through the press that on Monday even- 
ing, in the same place, he would reply to his brother. 
Music Hall was packed, and the Doctor's audience 
thoroughly enjoyed the good-natured but energetic 
attack upon the Senator's basic principles. But 
whatever political differences might exist, there was 
always the warmest fraternal feeling between all the 
brothers; for the Burrowses were clannish. For 
many years there was an annual reunion of the 
brothers at Jerome's home, and the occasion was 
always one of rare pleasure for those friends who were 
fortunate enough to be included. 

In 1850 Father Burrows and his family removed 
to another farm near Kingsville, Ashtabula County, 
Ohio, — but let us listen to the story as Burrows him- 
self tells it: "We left Grahamville and bought a 



20 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

farm in the famous Nineteenth District of Ohio, which 
was represented in Congress by Joshua R. Giddings, 
and, at a later date, by James A. Garfield, and which 
was also the home of Senator Benjamin F. Wade, the 
furious abolitionist. Money was scarce, markets 
were few and far apart, farm products had to be 
traded to merchants for calico and other goods. I 
received a little money by peeling apples and drying 
them in the sun. I milked five cows twice a day, and 
walked three miles to the Academy at Kingsville. In 
Winter I did chores at a man's house for my board, 
but I secured a room at the Academy, sweeping the 
building and ringing the bell for my tuition. My 
mother gave me a bed and a box-stove, and I did my 
own cooking. My food came from the farm, and was 
prepared on the stove in my room by frying the pork 
on the top and roasting the potatoes in the ashes ; but 
occasionally I went home, four miles away, for a 
square meal. 

"On Wednesdays we had rhetoricals. A teacher 
named Drake seemed to take pleasure in criticising 
and humiliating me before my fellow-students. One 
day I opened on Drake in an outrageous speech. He 
ordered me off the platform, following the command, 
when I didn't go, with a push. The girls screamed 
and the boys laughed. Then I went outside and 
finished my speech on the fence." 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 21 

There are still living several who remember the old 
days in Kingsville Academy. Norris L. Gage, of 
Ashtabula, Ohio, in a letter to his brother Stephen, 
who was a student there at the same time as the Bur- 
rows boys, writes of this period : 

"I persuaded my mother to allow me to attend the 
exhibition which took place in the Baptist Church at 
the close of the Fall term at Kingsville Academy. I 
had no shoes, but that mattered not, as boys of nine 
or ten years were not expected to wear shoes until 
snow commenced to fly in November. The fact that 
I had no coat I knew was a substantial drawback, but 
I had a sort of calico vest, and my mother had care- 
fully prepared a clean white shirt which, with linen 
trousers and a cap, completed my outfit for the occa- 
sion. When ready to start I was much astonished, 
on looking down at myself, to see what a white and 
ghostlike appearance I presented. My mother, how- 
ever, encouraged me my saying that if I behaved as 
well as I looked all would be well, and I started with 
a light heart and nimble feet. 

"I remember one incident of a startling nature. It 
seems that as a climax one of the Burrows boys, either 
'Rome' or Julius Caesar, was to declaim a piece called 
'The Maniac' He had stationed himself in the hall, 
and when his name was called he jumped and struck 
the open door with fists and feet, making a great 



22 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

clatter and outcry, and then strode up the aisle 
towards the rostrum, both hands clutched in his own 
dishevelled hair, a look of agony on his face, scream- 
ing at the top of his voice, 'I am not mad, I am not 
mad,' finishing his recitation in the same tragic man- 
ner. It was deemed a great piece of oratory." 

After his experience at Kingsville, Burrows at- 
tended the academy at Austinburg, in the same 
county, teaching school during the Winter months, as 
did also his sister and five of his brothers. By the 
time he was eighteen years old he was regarded as a 
competent pedagogue, and was appointed principal 
of a "female" seminary in Madison, Lake County, 
Ohio. It was here that the romance of his life 
occurred, for the assistant principal was Miss Jennie 
S. Hibbard, to whom he was married within a few 
months, on January 31, 1856, just after passing his 
nineteenth birthday. The letter written by the 
youthful and admiring assistant principal to an- 
nounce to her uncle her engagement is so charmingly 
naive that it is given here in full: 

From Miss Jennie S. Hibbard 

Madison Sem., November, I9th, '55 

Very Dear Uncle: 

Here I am pleasantly located in the flourishing 
town of Madison, surrounded by all the pleasures life 





MRS. JULIUS C. BURROWS 

Jennie S. Hibbard 
i860 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 23 

would seek. You may wish to know why I am here 
and what I am engaged in (perhaps the question 
would be full as easily answered were you to ask who 
I am engaged to — however, we will let that pass for 
the present). The circular within may partially 
furnish you with an answer. Suffice it to add that 
we have a very exceedingly pleasant school. This is 
the first week of our second term — eleven weeks each. 
Mr. J. C. Burrows, you will see by the advertisement, 
is principal, and Miss Jennie S. Hibbard his assistant. 
He is a gentleman eighteen years of age, irreproach- 
able character, generous impulses, and endowed 
with a giant intellect which threatens some future day 
to make the world tremble. There's a certain honor- 
able nobility about him that serves at once as a pass- 
port to the best of society. He is at once distin- 
guished from the common mind — a gentleman from 
Geneva where he resides says he is the most talented 
man in America ; so you see. Uncle, I am not the only 
one that admires his character. Mayhap s you may 
think that my regard for him amounts to something 
more than admiration, and indeed, dear Uncle, can 
you present any good reason why it should not? We 
board at the same place and have a common sitting- 
room, consequently I am thrown into his company 
continually. Thereby I have ample opportunity of 
noting the various passions which actuate him, and 



24 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

I can say truthfully that I have never known him to 
do aught but was honorable and praiseworthy. He 
is at present engaged at the same table with myself 
writing an original speech, which he anticipates de- 
livering before long at Centerville in the townhouse. 
You may well think I am proud of the conquest I 
have gained, and I will nobly strive to fill with honor 
the important station I am about to occupy. 

I often think how Aunt Sarah almost blamed me 
because I refused the addresses of a certain young 

man — the first letters of his name are C A . 

He has since married M H , and is no more 

to be compared with your prospective nephew than a 
soap-bubble to the foaming waters of Niagara. Mr. 
Burrows is at times mirthful, but again the Goddess of 
Thought holds sway over him, proud of her high mis- 
sion. He will probably teach here one term more, 
and then will commence reading law. A life of use- 
fulness is predicted by all. He has one brother read- 
ing law now at Cleveland, another at Hamilton Col- 
lege preparing for the ministry, another a practicing 
physician at Lenox — quite a literary family methinks 
I hear you say, and indeed they are ; and now, Uncle, 
if I wasn't afraid I should blush (right before him, 
too) I would tell you that I am about to launch off into 
the peculiar state of connubial bliss with this mighty 
genius, and then I would not only ask but implore 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 25 

of you and Aunties to come and help celebrate the 
nuptials; but you know I am an extremely bashful 
child, therefore you must take the will for the deed, 
and imagine what delicacy forbids me to write. 

Now, Uncle, if you love me or regard my most 
ardent wishes, do arrange your business so as to be 
at our house January 31st., 9 o'clock A. M., and I am 
not willing that any should arrange my bridal array 
save Aunts Mary and Sally. Oh, you will come, 
won't you? All of you. Come at least a week 
before the great event transpires. I know you never 
will regret it. If you knew how much it would con- 
duce to my happiness I know you wouldn't refuse me 
this one request. Please write soon and let me know 
your decision, but please don't say no ; and now. Aunt 
Sally, I am about to ask a great favor of you. Will 
you grant it ? You know there are no dressy or tasty 
milliners around here, none that I would trust to make 
a bridal hat. Your skill and ingenuity combined 
with Aunt Mary's excellent taste alone can please my 
fancy. Is the boon too great to ask? The favor is a 
great one I know, and yet I know if it is consistent 
with your previous arrangements you will make it for 
me, but, Auntie, you will only half fulfill the request 
unless you come and bring it. Should cruel fate 
detain you perhaps you might send it. Please make 
it so by a little changing I could wear it next Summer. 



26 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

Please let me know soon if you can make it ; if not I 
shall have to go to Painesville or Cleveland. 

From Jennie who will never forget you. 

If you do not all come I shall surely cry my eyes 
all out, and then how I'd look (and a bride too) . 

Post Script 1st. I can't send this till I go home, 
for I have forgotten the name of the town you reside 
in. 

P.S. 2nd. Pa is in Buffalo, but will be at home 
about the 3 1 st of January. 

P.S. 3rd. Our people made me the little present 
of a gold watch, and chain, a few weeks since. Cost 
78% dollars. 

P.S. 4th. Mr. Burrows sends his compliments. 

P.S. 5th. If you cannot decipher this scribbling 
you had better come right down, for you don't know 
but that it contains very important news. 

P.S. 6th. Guess I've told all I know, at least 
can't think of anything else to say, only I love you all 
prodigiously, 

Your Jennie 

Few men have had thrust upon them the necessity 
of living up to a picture such as is here drawn, but a 
perusal of the war letters in a later chapter will show 
how well the youthful husband succeeded. Their 
brief married life was filled with the anxiety and the 



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i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 27 

pain of separation incidental to the Civil War period, 
but Burrows was ever her "giant intellect" and her 
"mighty genius." Never did she doubt his ability 
"to make the world tremble." 

After leaving Madison, in the Fall of 1858 Bur- 
rows took charge of the Union School at Jefferson, 
Ashtabula County, Ohio, as principal. While here 
he found his recreation outside of school hours play- 
iny "rounders" with Congressman Joshua R. Gid- 
dings, a game which was subsequently developed into 
our National pastime of baseball, and also by study- 
ing law in the office of Cadwell & Simonds, where he 
finished his legal studies, and a year later was ad- 
mitted to the bar. 

Jefferson, like Kingsville, was in the midst of the 
famous old Nineteenth Congressional District of 
Ohio, a district which has produced more distin- 
guished public men than any similar area in Amer- 
ica. In his school Burrows had as pupils the chil- 
dren of Giddings and of Senator Benjamin F. Wade, 
and also the sisters and brothers of William Dean 
Howells, the dean of American letters. Howells, 
indeed, has made Jefferson immortal in his essay on 
The Country Printer. It was in this town that How- 
ells' father established a Whig newspaper, and 
Howells' early memories of those days, which were 
contemporaneous with the period in which Burrows 



28 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

lived in Jefferson, give a charming picture of the place 
and of the people : 

"The county-seat," he writes, "was a village of 
only six or seven hundred inhabitants. But, as the 
United States Senator ^ who was one of its citizens 
used to say, it was 'a place of great political priv- 
ileges.' The dauntless man ^ who represented the 
district in the House for twenty years, and who had 
fought the anti-slavery battle from the first, was his 
fellow-villager, and more than compeer in distinc- 
tion; and, besides these, there was nearly always a 
State senator or representative among us. The 
county officers, of course, lived at the county-seat, and 
the leading lawyers, who were the leading politicians, 
made their homes in the shadow of the court-house, 
where one of them was presently elected to preside 
as Judge of the Common Pleas. In politics, the 
county was already overwhelmingly Free-Soil, as the 
forerunner of the Republican Party was then called; 
the Whigs had hardly gathered themselves together 
since the defeat of General Scott for the Presidency; 
the Democrats, though dominant in State and Nation, 
and faithful to slavery at every election, did not 
greatly outnumber among us the zealots called Come- 
outers, who would not vote at all under a constitution 
recognizing the right of men to own men. . . . 

1 Benjamin F. Wade. 2 Joshua R. Giddings. 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 29 

"The people of the county were mostly farmers, 
and of these nearly all were dairy men. The few 
manufactures were on a small scale, except perhaps 
the making of oars, which were shipped all over the 
world from the heart of the primeval forests densely 
wooding the vast levels of the region. The portable 
steam saw-mills dropped down on the borders of the 
woods have long since eaten their way through and 
through them, and devoured every stick of timber in 
most places, and drunk up the water-courses that 
the woods once kept full; but at that time half the 
land was in the shadow of those mighty poplars and 
hickories, elms and chestnuts, ashes and hemlocks; 
and the meadows that pastured the herds of red 
cattle were dotted with stumps as thick as harvest 
stubble. Now . . . there is more money in the 
hands of the farmers there, though there is still so 
little that by any city scale it would seem comically 
little, pathetically little ; but forty years ago there was 
so much less that fifty dollars seldom passed through 
a farmer's hands in a year. Payment was made in 
kind rather than in coin, and every sort of farm prod- 
uce was legal tender at the printing-office. Wood 
was welcome in any quantity, for the huge box-stove 
consumed it with inappeasable voracity. . . . Per- 
haps this was not so much the fault of the stove as of 
the building. In that cold, lake-shore country the 



30 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

people dwelt in wooden structures almost as thin and 
flimsy as tents. . . . 

"Our county was the most characteristic of that 
remarkable group of counties in northern Ohio called 
the Western Reserve, and forty years ago the popula- 
tion was almost purely New England in origin, either 
by direct settlement from Connecticut, or indirectly 
after the sojourn of a generation in New York State. 
We were ourselves from southern Ohio, where the 
life was then strongly tinged by the adjoining life of 
Kentucky and Virginia, and we found these trans- 
planted Yankees cold and blunt in their manners; 
but we did not undervalue their virtues. They 
formed in that day a leaven of right thinking and feel- 
ing which was to leaven the whole lump of the other- 
wise pro-slavery or indifferent State; and I suppose 
that outside of the anti-slavery circles of Boston there 
was nowhere in the country a population so resolute 
and so intelligent in its political opinions. They 
were very radical in every way, and hospitable to 
novelty of all kinds. I imagine that they tested more 
new religions and new patents than have been even 
heard of in less inquiring communities. When we 
came among them they had lately been swept by the 
fires of spiritualism, which left behind a great deal of 
smoke and ashes where the inherited New England 
orthodoxy had been. . . . The old New York Trib- 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 31 

une, which was circulated in the county almost as 
widely as our own paper, had deeply schooled the 
people in the economics of Horace Greeley, and they 
were ready for any sort of millennium, religious or 
industrial, that should arrive, while they looked very 
wisely after the main chance in the meantime. They 
were temperate, hard-working, hard-thinking folks, 
who dwelt on their scattered farms, and came up to 
the county fair once a year." ^ 

The period at Jefferson, though not extended, was 
of vital importance to Burrows. The companionship 
with Giddings and the discussions with Wade broad- 
ened his horizon, for their life in Washington gave 
them knowledge of and experience in National affairs 
which they brought home and disseminated among 
those whose limits were restricted. The arguments 
the boy had learned by heart from his father had been 
worn threadbare long since, but in his contact with 
these men who knew the world so much better he 
found that the principles he had assimilated were the 
same. The community in which he settled was com- 
posed of men, as Howells says, "of right thinking and 
feeling," "resolute and intelligent in their political 
opinions." As the mentor of their children, Burrows 
was forced to crystallize and express in definite form 
the conclusions he had reached, and all this tended to 

1 Howells : "Impressions and Experiences," pp. 5-18. 



32 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

set his ideas in a mold at a time in his life when con- 
victions struck deep. 

Here at Jefferson, Ohio, his daughter ^ was born, 
and here he had his first taste of real home life ; but a 
broader field opened for him in an opportunity to take 
charge of what was then known as the Prairie Semi- 
nary at Richland, in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. 
Thither he took his httle family in 1859, "by rail to 
Three Rivers, by stage to Kalamazoo, and by foot to 
Richland." This marked his entrance into the State 
whose history he was to affect, and whose representa- 
tive he was to be in Washington for a period equaled 
by few men in the annals of the country. 

Of his work at Richland, Burrows makes this com- 
ment: "I was a stranger, and that is probably why 
I was successful. I was engaged to teach all the 
branches, but some I had never even studied. That 
year was a delightful one. I did not have a single 
rule in the school. I simply tried to teach the 
scholars to do something and to be something." 

As the personal development progressed. Burrows 
found the profession of teaching more and more irk- 
some. He could never be contented to show others 
how "to do something and to be something"; he him- 

1 Meda Burrows, Senator Burrows' only child, married George 
McNeir, Esquire, of New York, on October 16, 1881. Her two sons 
are Burrows McNeir and Thomas Shepherd McNeir. 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 33 

self must be the doer. With his admission to the bar 
he saw his opportunity to place himself nearer to the 
center of things, and in the Fall of 1861 he cut himself 
loose from the restraint of the schoolroom, moving to 
Kalamazoo and entering upon the practice of law. 
He felt stirring within him the desire to express those 
ideals of the new Republican Party ; he had taken part 
in two Presidential campaigns, and had seen Lincoln 
elected ; he sensed the meaning of this first success of 
the new political organization, and knew that as an 
expounder of the law he could advance its principles 
with greater effectiveness. 

Like all young lawyers. Burrows experienced a 
hard struggle at the beginning of his career, and he 
used to boast that his books showed an income of a 
dollar and a half for the first three months' business. 
Still the fact remains that he quickly made himself 
felt in his profession, and won an enviable reputation 
as a jury lawyer, where his oratorical powers made 
themselves felt. That he was well-grounded in the 
general principles of law is evident in all his impor- 
tant speeches in Congress, and during the brief breaks 
in his public life, when he returned to his practice, 
his services were always in demand. 

In his law practice. Burrows first associated himself 
with A. A. Knappen, and between these two men 
there developed a deep personal friendship which 



34 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

lasted throughout their lifetime. Knappen was an 
older man, but was in full sympathy with the enthusi- 
asm of his youthful partner, encouraging him in his 
ambitions and cooperating with him in his patriotic 
services. During Burrows' absence at the front sev- 
eral interesting letters passed between them, evidenc- 
ing mutual affection and admiration.^ 

Burrows was not permitted long to continue in the 
work of his profession. The time was close at hand 
when men's thoughts were forced to turn in directions 
other than those of peaceful pursuits, professional or 
otherwise. The people of the North had not grasped, 
as those of the South clearly had, the significance 
of Lincoln's election of i860; for they could not be- 
lieve it possible that any actual conflict in arms could 
take place between themselves and their own brothers 
in birth. Even when South Carolina held her Legis- 
lature in session until the news could be received as 
to the majority in the electoral college, and before 
adjournment, when it became known that Lincoln 
was elected, promptly provided for the purchase of 

lOn December 15, 1862, Knappen writes him: "Yours of the 7th 
inst. was received yesterday, and you may rest assured that it was 
perused with eager interest. I really believe the more of them I re- 
ceive the more I prize them, and it is not strange, — a friendship such 
as ours to be committed to paper! You cannot make them too long. 
The only reason I do not write more is that I am ashamed of them in 
comparison with yours. . . . Now let me close this by repeating what I 
have so often said to you: Don't be rash, but only brave, — you cannot 
improve your reputation for fighting." 



i862] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 35 

arms, the North still refused to believe that any crisis 
was at hand. When South Carolina, Mississippi, 
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas 
formally declared themselves separated from the 
Union, many intelligent Northern men questioned in 
their own minds whether any one could legally dis- 
pute their action. The Southern States assumed 
that inasmuch as each one had entered the Union of 
its own free will, and might at that time have declined 
to become a member of it, it was unquestionably 
within their rights to withdraw, as from any other 
partnership, when cause for such withdrawal ap- 
peared to exist. When South Carolina sent com- 
missioners to Washington to arrange, as a matter of 
course, for a proper division of the National debt, and 
for the formal transferal of all National property ly- 
ing within her borders. President Buchanan was at a 
loss to know how to meet the situation. A peace con- 
ference was called to discuss and to arrange such 
problems as arose in connection with the breaking 
away of these States from their sister members of the 
Union, and no one seemed to know where the line 
could properly be drawn. Before the Federal au- 
thorities could come to any conclusion, the Confeder- 
acy had taken possession of every fortified position 
in the South except Fortress Monroe, Fort Sumter, 
Fort Pickens, and the Key West fortifications. Pres- 



36 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1837 

ident Buchanan's advisers were equally at sea. 
Some contended that the Southern States had a per- 
fect right to act as they were acting, while others 
denied this right, but could formulate no action to 
check it. Under these circumstances they calmly 
stood aside, and waited to see what the new Repub- 
lican Party, successful now for the first time, could 
accomplish. 



N 



CHAPTER II 

The Soldier-Husband. 1862-1863 

chapter in Burrows' life is more illuminating 
from the standpoint of character study than 
that which includes his mental attitude and physical 
action during the stirring period of the Civil War. 
The formation of the Republican Party in 1854, to 
which allusion has already been made, the struggle 
over Kansas, the attack made in the Senate Chamber 
by Brooks upon Sumner, the Dred Scott decision, the 
John Brown raid, the wranglings in the Thirty- 
fourth, the Thirty-fifth, and the Thirty-sixth Con- 
gresses, — all were landmarks of cumulative impor- 
tance as the partisans of slavery and anti-slavery 
grew farther and farther apart, reaching a climax in 
the Republican nomination of Lincoln for President. 
For the first time the two factions were squarely 
pitted against each other, and the long-smouldering 
mass received the spark which turned it into a con- 
flagration. 

Burrows could see no compromise. Slavery was 
the one blot upon his country, slavery threatened the 
very life of the Republic, and those who favored it 
37 



38 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

were traitors. The lessons learned at his father's 
knee, the influence of the visit to his home of Fred 
Douglass, the arguments he had heard at the meetings 
of the debating-societies, the discussions at Jefferson 
with Giddings and Wade, combined to make him look 
upon his enrolment in the newly-formed Republican 
Party as a responsibility which could not be lightly 
considered. His duty lay not only in his expression 
of his opinion at the polls, but also in making use of 
his power as a speaker, even as a youth, in stimulat- 
ing others to his own high pitch of enthusiasm. 

Fort Sumter was fired upon on April 12, 1861, 
and three days later President Lincoln called by proc- 
lamation for seventy-five thousand volunteers. Bur- 
rows was inflamed with patriotism, and would have 
enlisted at once except for pressure brought to bear 
upon him by influential friends who urged him to 
make use of his natural gifts to arouse and maintain a 
similar degree of patriotic fervor among his towns- 
men. His law practice was forgotten, Blackstone 
gave way to tactics of war, and clients were turned 
into recruits. This service was recognized by Gov- 
ernor Austin Blair by issuing a commission to Bur- 
rows as Captain of Company D, Seventeenth Michi- 
gan Infantry, under date of June 17, 1862. This 
regiment had been organized in Detroit in the Spring 
of 1862 with an enrolment of 982 officers and men, 




CAPTAIN BURROWS (1862) 

Mat 25 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 39 

under the command of Colonel William H. Withing- 
ton of Jackson. 

With the signing of his commission Burrows saw 
no legitimate excuse for postponing the forward 
movement of his regiment. Patience has never been 
a characteristic of youth, and although a captain 
Burrows was still a boy. Patriots older than he 
chafed at the seeming deliberation with which the 
President and his Cabinet met the crises, and became 
disheartened by the delays and excuses made by Mc- 
Clellan, which gave the Southern army opportunity 
to augment its strength and to gain prestige by its 
early successes. Burrows fairly fumed over the "un- 
warranted delays" and the restraint they imposed, un- 
til at last he burst forth in a burning letter to a local 
Kalamazoo paper. It is youthful in expression and 
grandiloquent in style, but it displays the boy's tem- 
per, and pictures the sentiment of the period : 

"When this direful rebellion first showed its hide- 
ous front, and commenced its war of murder and 
rapine," he wrote, "the loyal people, responding 
magnanimously to the call of the President, were told 
that this rebellion should be put down by the strong 
arm of the Government, and that in a few months 
peace would smile upon our country. Stimulated 
by that promise, and urged forward by an undying 
love for our institutions, our men of wealth poured 



40 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

forth their treasures, and many a home took from 
the chain of its circle the golden link, and placed it 
with tears upon its country's altar. The people, con- 
fiding in their rulers, have not lagged in their duty, 
but life and treasure have been at the command of 
the Government. All that the people could do has 
been done willingly, and with an energy and earnest- 
ness unequaled in the history of the past. Almost 
by magic a mighty army sprang into existence, and 
with uplifted arms stood ready to smite the despoiler 
to the earth. But the blow was arrested. The peo- 
ple were wisely told that the troops must be drilled, 
and that the weather was too warm to venture on a 
Southern campaign; and that until the weather 
should be more favorable, traitors must rule. 

"How the hard Northern cheek tingled with shame 
and indignation at the thought that homes must be 
plundered, loyal American citizens insulted and mur- 
dered, and our flag, the idol of the heart, torn and 
trailed in the dust, simply because the weather was 
not suited to the taste of 'red tape' ! Yet the people 
endured and obeyed the high mandate, and were still 
cheered with the promise that when that propitious 
time should arrive the blow would be struck. Then 
all minds were directed to the coming Fall as the 
probable time when the army would move. The 
heart was filled with new life, and the people almost 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 41 
forgot their chagrin in the labors for the coming con- 
flict. To the honest soldier it seemed as if Nature 
herself had forgotten to move, his heart throbbed so 
impatiently for the eventful hour when traitors 
should have dealt out to them the punishment they 
richly merit. 

"Autumn came, and the people were coolly told 
that Winter was the proper time for the marching of 
our armies, and until then we must be content to for- 
tify and drill. Again the people were utterly con- 
founded, and lost all confidence in those they had 
trusted. The nations of the whole world were de- 
riding our timidity, and threatening us with destruc- 
tion if we did not show ourselves worthy of the title 
we bore. Yet all to no avail, — the army must drill ! 
Winter comes, and lo ! and behold ! this is not a favor- 
able time, and the army must go into Winter quarters ! 
The roads are good, the soldiers are impatient, the 
people are ready, but the Government at Washington 
says, 'Not yet.' Winter is half spent, and the mighty 
army of two hundred thousand men on the Potomac 
is patiently resting in Winter quarters. Now what 
will these shoulder-strap gentlemen — what can the 
Executive say? When will they tell us that the time 
for fighting has come? Will it be in the Spring, 
when the roads are impassable, and disease and death 
are thinning our ranks? Will it be when the Nation 



42 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

is stripped of its wealth, and has given its all to no 
effect? Will it be when the people are disheartened 
and exhausted and are willing to submit to anything 
for peace ? Or will those in authority let the soldiers 
strike — cease to fatten upon the wealth of the people, 
and 'let slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed may 
smell above the earth with carrion men groaning for 
burial' ? 

"When we shall get through making big men, 
when we shall cease our grand reviews and begin our 
grand march, when our Government has the manli- 
ness and courage to look traitors in the face and say, 
'So far and no farther,' when it gets through patting 
treason and licking the feet of traitors, when the Gov- 
ernment dares speak in our Congress, in our Execu- 
tive, in his Cabinet, not by wordy proclamations but 
by law and bullets, then, and not till then shall we be 
victorious." 

Lincoln's long-suffering patience was incompre- 
hensible to Burrows, as it was to others. Later, the 
youthful patriot was to understand that the great- 
hearted President was wilhng to endure insult and 
mockery if by so doing he might prevent the necessity 
of continuing the fratricidal conflict. To him, the 
"rebels" were never traitors, but rather misguided, 
rebellious members of that great family over which 
he ruled as head, and he tried to win them back by 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 43 

acts of mercy and conciliation. Burrows came to 
realize this later, and his splendid Eulogy of Lincoln, 
spoken on June l, 1865, shortly after the President's 
assassination, is interesting not only for the changed 
attitude but also for the dignity in style which was 
indicative of the personal development three years 
had wrought. Seldom has a man so promptly and so 
completely answered his own criticism: 

"While the ship of State was rocking upon rebel- 
lion's angry sea," he said, "Lincoln added no breath 
to the storm, but his words of sober counsel fell like 
oil upon the troubled waters. Every loyal heart in 
the whole country, in its mad impatience, demanded 
daring measures and proclamations that should have 
the ring of an Andrew Jackson in them; but while 
this policy might have received the approval of us all, 
yet it is equally probable that it would have been pro- 
ductive of but little good, and might have proven an 
act of National suicide. A breath of hasty passion 
from the Executive head would have swept the whole 
hne of border States into the whirlpool of rebelHon, 
and nursed the spirit of Northern opposition into for- 
midable proportions. But with what wisdom and 
calmness, as he stood upon the banks of the Ohio, he 
addressed Kentuckians, then vacillating between loy- 
alty and treason, repeating to them what he had 
uttered upon a former occasion, 'We mean to treat 



44 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

you as near as we possibly can as Washington, Jeffer- 
son, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave 
you alone, and in no way to interfere with your insti- 
tutions ; to abide by all and every compromise of the 
Constitution; and, in a word, to treat you according 
to the example of those noble fathers. We mean to 
remember that you are as good as we, — that there is 
no difference between us other than the difference 
of circumstances. Fellow-citizens of Kentucky! 
friends! brethren may I call you in my new position? 
I see no occasion and feel no inclination to retract a 
word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured 
the fault shall not be mine.' " 

On August 8, 1862, the heartbreaking delay came 
to an end, the Seventeenth Michigan was mustered 
into service, and on August 27 it started for Washing- 
ton. Here it was assigned to the First Brigade, First 
Division, Ninth Army Corps. In a letter written 
from camp at Waterford, Virginia, Burrows describes 
their first experiences : 

"Our trip to Washington was a perfect ovation," 
he wrote. "The people ever5rwhere cheered us 
onward and bade us 'Godspeed.' After arriving at 
the city of Washington, and marching through some 
of the principal streets, we pitched our tents upon a 
hill near Fort Baker, and named the camp 'Camp 
Willcox' in honor of that noble son of Michigan who 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 45 

on the field and in the prison is the same undaunted 
hero. While here in camp we spent our time in 
learning the use of the axe and spade in obedience to 
that mysterious strategy 'whose ways are past finding 
out.' " 

Yet, in spite of this apparent delay, which caused 
Burrows to strain at the leash, it was only a little more 
than two weeks from the day the regiment left its 
State before it found itself in the midst of one of the 
severest battles of the war, taking into consideration 
the numbers engaged. Few regiments ' received so 
severe a test of their courage and soldierly qualities 
so soon after arriving in the field. On September 14 
the Seventeenth, with the Ninth Corps, engaged the 
enemy at South Mountain, Maryland, with the inten- 
tion of crossing the mountain through Turner's Gap, 
and driving the Confederates from their commanding 
positions on the summit, from which they could sweep 
with their artillery the narrow roads over which the 
Union troops must pass. The Seventeenth had been 
so reciently organized and was so inexperienced in 
actual warfare that the men could not appreciate the 
desperate task assigned them until the enemy's shot 
and shell were crashing through their ranks. It was 
another "Taking of Lungtungpen," made famous by 
Kipling, — '"Tis the bhoys — the raw bhoys — that 
don't know fwat a bullet manes, an' wudn't care av 



46 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

they did — ^that dhu the work. . . . Wud fifty seas- 
oned sodgers have taken Lungtungpen in the dhark 
that way? No ! They'd know the risk av fever and 
chill. Let alone the shootin'." When the order 
came for the Seventeenth to charge, the regiment, 
indifferent to the enemy calmly waiting behind their 
stone walls and other defenses, rushed through the 
storm of lead with mad cheers, and forced the Con- 
federates to retreat down the slope of the mountain. 
The regiment lost 140 of the 500 men engaged, but 
earned the proud title of the "Stonewall Regiment." ^ 
Three days later the Seventeenth was again des- 

iWith regard to the conduct of the Seventeenth Michigan in the 
battle of South Mountain, General O. B. Willcox, the division com- 
mander, says: "The Seventeenth Michigan, Colonel Withington, per- 
formed a feat that may vie with any recorded in the annals of war, 
and set an example to the oldest troops. This regiment had not been 
organized a single month, and was composed of raw levies." {Offlcial 
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XIX, 
Part I, page 429.) 

Colonel B. C. Christ, the Brigade Commander, says: "Supported 
by the Seventy-ninth New York, the Seventeenth Michigan moved stead- 
ily forward imtil they arrived within good range, and then opened a 
fire on the enemy with terrible effect, . . . driving him in the utmost 
confusion across the field into the woods, and capturing a number of 
prisoners. Under any circumstances the conduct of both oflBcers and 
men of this regiment was worthy of the highest commendation, but 
especially so when taking into consideration that they were mustered 
into service as late as the 21st of August, 1862, and that this was 
their first engagement." (Ibid., page 437.) 

General McClellan, the army commander, also says: "General Will- 
cox praises very highly the conduct of the Seventeenth Michigan in this 
advance — a regiment which had been organized scarcely a month, but 
which charged the advancing enemy in flank in a manner worthy of 
veteran troops." (Ibid., page 60.) 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 47 
perately engaged at Antietam, Maryland, in that 
useless attempt to carry Burnside's Bridge when the 
narrow stream could have been easily forded above 
or below. The success of the regiment in gaining 
the opposite heights was at a fearful cost in killed 
and wounded. 

"It is often asked — " Burrows writes/ "and I pre- 
sume the same inquiry is made at home — why we did 
not advance after the battle of Antietam. The 
Rebels had been driven from every position they had 
taken, they had been defeated in two pitched battles, 
and were cowering under the banks of the Potomac. 
The whole of the Union forces had not been engaged, 
the soldiers were elated with their victories and eager 
to go forward, yet at the very moment when a word 
would have annihilated that whole Rebel army, not a 
gun was fired nor a man moved. For one whole day 
and night the Rebels were retreating across the Po- 
tomac under the very muzzles of our guns. Here the 
war might have been ended, but strategy forbade. 
The only excuse offered for this masterly blunder is 
that we were out of ammunition." 

Unpreparedness ! Had the North made ready for 
the civil struggle from the moment Fort Sumter was 
fired upon, victory would have been won within six 
months, mstead of dragging over four awful years! 

1 November 1, 1862. 



48 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

It is the same cry from this youthful captain in 1862 
which we hear from every experienced army com- 
mander in 1917. The sentiment of the people at 
large, even of loyal Republicans, was in hearty 
accord with the despair and disgust of the soldiers in 
the field. This letter to Burrows from A. A. Knap- 
pen, his law partner (December 15, 1862), is graph- 
ically illuminating: 

From A. A. Knappen 

God only knows whether I am writing to a live man 
or a corpse ! Yesterday's news of the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg reached us, and it was of a gloomy char- 
acter, it told of panic in Sumner's Division and 
terrible slaughter — eight generals killed. I hope the 
news today will be more cheerful — ^will tell of a bril- 
liant victory for our brave troops, the enemy routed 
and broken, and their artillery and commissary stores 
captured, and Burnside, with "On to Richmond" 
inscribed on his banner, pursuing the retreating foe. 
This would make millions of loyal hearts throb with 
pleasure and pride — it would be a rather novel sensa- 
tion! What! pursue a flying foe! Preposterous, 
absurd! When have we done as rash a thing as 
that? But once or twice during the war. But I 
will not complain to one who feels just as intensely 
as I do, and more too. I know you are confident of 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 49 
going to Richmond, and I hope you will see the inside 
of it. But I confess my faith is oozing out by 
degrees. There is no head or heart to the Adminis- 
tration sufficient to grapple with a mighty conspiracy. 
I fear there is too much weakness at the bottom of 
the Cabinet. To tell the truth, I am mad at the 
President's Message offering to pay for all slaves, 
whether belonging to Rebels or loyal men! There 
is the Major Key for you! Distrusting the power 
of our armies, and the same infernal regard for the 
sacredness of slavery! I would give more for the 
little finger of a Jackson or a Douglas in such a con- 
test as this than I would for the whole President and 
Cabinet of today. Lincoln is weak, and Seward uses 
him to suit his great strategic purposes. I tremble 
while I hope for the best. The people here are get- 
ting more and more disgusted every day. The whole 
thing looks like child's play or a farce. There is so 
much vacillation and hesitating about measures until 
the golden moment has sped. It is enough to make 
one weep tears of blood. We know the soldiers want 
to do their work thoroughly and well, so that they 
can come home and rest easy, but politicians and 
speculators wish the war still to continue — and it 
hangs fire. But enough of this grumbling. I am 
satisfied that you must feel what I can but poorly 
express. . . . 



50 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

Burrows closes his own letter last quoted with the 
following comment: "On the 26th inst. Burnside's 
Corps crossed the Potomac near Point of Rocks, and 
we at last stood upon the soil of the Old Dominion. 
The 'Grand Army of the Potomac' is in motion, and 
if it is defeated the soldiers are not at fault. McClel- 
lan has not yet crossed, but there is great activity 
along the Potomac, and we all hope that this is at 
last advance, and that our generals in the field and 
the apologists of treason at home will simply let the 
soldiers go forward. They will deal such blows upon 
the heads of this rebellious crew as will make all 
rebeldom resound with one universal shout for 
mercy." 

After the battle of Antietam there was no active 
service of importance until the bitter struggle on 
December 13 at Fredericksburg, where the Michigan 
Seventeenth was again in the thickest of the fight. 
The severity of the campaign forced Burrows into the 
hospital after Fredericksburg. Suffering from ex- 
haustion, he had become reduced in weight to eighty 
pounds, and he was granted leave of absence to recu- 
perate. He writes home from Seminary Hospital, 
January 9, 1863: "I am going to 'walk the Halls 
of Congress' some day this week. You may look in 
the paper for a big speech if my health continues to 
improve!" Happy augury! Could he have fore- 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 51 

seen how many speeches he was yet to deliver within 
those Halls? 

His anticipated visit was postponed by the slow- 
ness of his convalescence until the latter part of 
February, but at last it became a realization. Wash- 
ington had been to him almost a mythical city, and 
his imagination had clothed it with every beauty and 
perfection. Until now, his vision had been restricted 
to the rural districts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 
Michigan. His knowledge of the world outside had 
come to him wholly from others. To Wade and Gid- 
dings may be given the credit for having fired his 
enthusiasm, but it was that powerful attribute of 
imagination inherited from his mother which colored 
the pictures upon which his eyes rested. Washing- 
ton in 1863 was far from being the model city one 
would judge from reading his description. The 
dome of the Capitol was but partly put in place ; the 
Goddess of Liberty reposed near by, still unpacked, 
— as if questioning its right to raise its head in the 
Capital City of a country which was fighting for its 
existence; beneath the Senate Chamber, where the 
restaurant now is, were stored rations for the army, 
and Washington was the City Militant, in process of 
reconstruction, rather than the City Beautiful as it 
appeared to Burrows' enraptured eyes. 

Still, as one smiles at the boyish enthusiasm, he 



52 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

cannot fail to ask himself what youth of twenty-six 
today could possibly be stirred by such emotions as 
are described by Burrows when he found himself 
within the Senate Chamber, — or, feeling them, could 
express himself in such words of patriotism. This 
letter to his wife, written on February 28, 1863, 
immediately after his return from Washington to the 
camp of the Michigan Seventeenth at Newport News, 
Virginia, demonstrates how carefully he had followed 
those events of National importance which had 
brought about the present conflict : 

"I hurried through the crowds which block up 
Pennsylvania Avenue, and soon found myself within 
the enclosure of the Capitol grounds. Nothing can 
be grander than this. Its winding walks paved with 
marble, its shady groves, its green plots, its sparkling 
fountains, present to the eye a scene of mingled 
beauty and grandeur. One can easily imagine him- 
self within the walls of Damascus, wandering among 
its shady groves, and resting beneath its arched wood. 

"You reach the Capitol by ascending stone steps, 
and from the porch of the Capitol you can see the 
whole city spread out before you like a map. The 
White House, the Smithsonian Institute, the Arsenal, 
and the hundred buildings of public interest and 
dwellings of beauty all stand out in bold relief. As 
you enter the Capitol the eye is dazzled with the mag- 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 53 
nifieence of the workmanship. You pass through its 
marble halls, and at length reach the gallery of the 
Senate and House. I had but a short time to remain 
in either branch, and while here I must confess that 
my mind was more occupied with the memories of 
the past than the scenes before me. The vast ro- 
tunda is crowded with paintings of the first class. 
Here is Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Adams, and Jackson, 
— all heroes. Here is Washington, the hero of the 
Revolution, the father of our country, represented at 
the proudest moment of his life when he received at 
Yorktown the sword of England's proudest warrior. 
Here is Washington as he surrended his commission 
to the Continental Congress. You may see his flash- 
ing eye, the firmly-compressed lip, all speaking of 
that unconscious purpose, that fixed determination 
which made him the greatest of his time. May we 
ever cherish his memory, and never suffer the Gov- 
ernment, of which he is the father, to be destroyed! 
Mighty warrior, patriot, and statesman, 'hail and 
farewell' ! 

"Here, too, is the representation of the landing of 
the Pilgrims, and of their first prayer on these wild 
and barbarous shores, driven here by the persecution 
of their fathers, hoping to find a land where they 
could worship God according to the dictates of their 
own consciences. Here, too, is a representation of 



54 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

their departure for their unknown homes, the parting 
blessing, the silent tear, the last firm grasp of the 
hand and warm pressure of the lips, the 'good bye' 
trembling on the tongue. All tell of that bitter 
parting, and that human sympathy and affection in 
1620 was as strong and as pure as today. Here, too, 
is the representation of the baptism of Pocahontas. 
What a sublime spectacle it must have been! That 
wild, untutored Indian girl, bowing at the baptismal 
fount, and acknowledging her love for that Being 
who rules and governs us all. Religion tames the 
savage, purifies the soul, elevates our natures, and 
gives us something to live for here, and hope for 
hereafter. Real, honest Christianity is man's first 
duty. Every man should be a Christian, not a hypo- 
crite. If there is one thing I despise above another 
it is the wearing of the cloak of religion to cover up 
sins and offences that 'smell to heaven.' I see so 
much of this that at times I am almost led to believe 
that there is no sincerity or honesty in Christianity 
itself, — that it is all a farce ; but when I see the noble 
example of these honest Christians who died on the 
altar of their faith I cannot doubt that Christianity 
and obedience, honest and submissive to the govern- 
ment of the Supreme, is a duty we owe to ourselves, 
to our fellow-man, to our own kindred, and to our 
God. 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SS 
"I fear I have digressed a little, but such pictures 
excite a thousand thoughts and ten thousand emo- 
tions. There were other paintings here, but my poor 
pen cannot do them justice; hence I will leave them, 
trusting that the time is not far distant when you can 
have the pleasure of seeing them yourself. Let us go 
back to the House. 

"I cannot describe this room. The stairs leading 
to the gallery are made of Egyptian marble, costly 
and rich. The gallery extends around the whole 
room, and down beneath is the assembly of the 
Nation's representatives. I stayed but a moment. 
The Senate Chamber is constructed on a similar plan, 
but more elegant. Both Houses were in session. 
Here is the first great battlefield of this Rebellion, — 
not of sword and bayonet, but of mind. Here is the 
spot where slaveholders have been crushed and routed 
by the mighty artillery of irresistible logic and elo- 
quence, and this Rebellion is but a natural conse- 
quence of their defeat. The Southerner, overpow- 
ered in this greater battle, resorted to brute force to 
defeat logic. It was natural. But what pitched 
battles have been fought within these walls! Here 
a Calhoun hurled the first missiles of treason to this 
Government in his struggle for State rights. His 
logic seemed irresistible, his eloquence was overpow- 
ering, and for a moment he wore the crown of com- 



56 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

plete triumph. The whole South, with its minions 
at the North, sent up their shout of victory, and 
exuhation ran mad. The North was filled with 
gloom and sadness. Massachusetts lay bleeding at 
the feet of South Carolina, and it needed a master 
workman to bind up her wounds. But we did not 
wait long. Daniel Webster, the Godlike and immor- 
tal Webster, stepped into the arena and unmasked his 
batteries. Then the Nation was breathless. They 
had felt the power of the enemy, and they feared the 
result of the contest ; but Webster knew his strength. 
He threw up no fortifications, no breastworks of 
sophistry, but came out on the broad field of truth, 
and opened upon the enemy. It needed but a few 
shots to tell us that there was a master hand at the 
guns. Stone after stone was falling from the forti- 
fications of the enemy, and finally it all crumbled to 
the ground. South Carolina was humbled. Its 
bold defender was routed, and still the immortal Web- 
ster poured forth his missiles of eloquence and logic 
till no doubt South Carolina and its chivalrous de- 
fender secretly plead for mercy. Yet he would not 
stop. His great heart was full, and it must out. 
And on he went, and still he thundered until the 
enemy's works were a mass of ruins, and victory com- 
plete. He buried South Carolina so low that she was 
fit for naught but treason. She never can be resur- 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 57 

rected. The men of the old Bay State shed tears 
like girls; and as I stood in the gallery where they 
stood methinks I could hear the echo of those words, 
'Liberty and union, now and forever, one and insep- 
arable.' 

"But he has passed away, — peace to his ashes. I 
could not but remember, too, as I was hearing Sumner 
speak, the battle he fought, the honors he received, 
and the victory he won. He, too, was fighting 
against this same power which is now fighting 
us in the field. They were then striving to fasten 
the bloody fangs of slavery upon that infant State 
of Kansas, and Sumner sprang to her side, and 
raised her from its hateful embrace. He baffled the 
insolent foe. To meet his logic with logic was simply 
impossible. Error might as well think of conquering 
truth. The bludgeon was called in, the argument of 
tyrants. Here the first blood of this Rebellion was 
shed, and for the second time treason was routed. 
The Southerner became convinced that to fight battles 
in our legislative halls was sure defeat, and that error 
could never conquer truth, except perchance with the 
sword. And they will learn ere long that even this 
bloody weapon is impotent to stay the onward march 
of liberty and humanity." 

Creased with the folds of over fifty years, the ink 
faded, and the writing in some places made illegible 



58 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

by a fire from which they were at one time rescued, 
nearly a hundred letters still exist which passed 
between the youthful captain at the front and his wife 
at home, — the Jennie of his Madison Seminary days, 
whose estimate of her prospective husband we have 
already read. The "giant intellect which threatens 
some future day to make the world tremble" she still 
recognizes, for she writes him (October 28, 1862) : 
"My present would indeed be a dreary desert were it 
not for the bright, cheerful spots your letters mark. 
They in a measure compensate for the absence of your 
own loved self. I don't believe any one ever wrote 
such good letters as you do. I am sure I never read 
any that were half equal to them." 

They are, indeed, remarkable documents, filled 
with graphic descriptions of camp and field, analyti- 
cal comments upon the various movements of the 
Army and its commanders, burning hatred of the 
"traitors" which required years to appease, lofty loy- 
alty to the cause of the Union, and with it all a ten- 
derness toward the little woman he has left behind 
which is humanly practical in its expression. These 
letters require little explanatory comment, but tell 
their own story of the relations which existed between 
this soldier-husband in his early twenties and the 
beloved wife and little daughter left behind. 

Their chief interest, however, lies not in their value 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 59 

as contributions to the literature of the Civil War, 
but rather as human documents portraying an unusual 
personality. The departure of the youthful husband 
to the front was a tragedy to Jennie, but to him it was 
the event of his life. For nearly ten years he had 
made the ideals of the Republican Party his bone and 
sinew; he had expounded them on every possible 
occasion, he had lived them every moment of his 
existence. With the call to arms came the first 
opportunity for tangible personal expression. The 
onward march of the Crusaders had begun! Aside 
from this, these letters show the boyish enjoyment of 
the novel experiences which came with the enlarged 
horizon. He omits no detail in the description of his 
camp and camp-hfe; he bursts into eloquent and 
poetical diction on the shores of the James ; he lashes 
the "traitors" with a fury which represents his years 
of cumulative loyalty to his cause ; he shows his youth 
in the bubbling joy of administering the oath to the 
sullen Southerners while performing his duties as 
Provost Marshal. The early opportunity given him 
to display his courage under fire demonstrates the 
sincerity of his devotion to his principles, but the fact 
remains that, despite the dangers and the hardships, 
Burrows' army experiences filled him with a keen 
enjoyment entirely unappreciated by the sympathetic 
and suffering wife who kept her lonely vigil at home. 



6o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

Let us read some fragments from her letters, written 
with fear gripping at her heart, and with dread uncer- 
tainty adding to her terrors. Here we shall find 
patriotism sadly mixed with love and anxiety for her 
personal hero. The lofty sentiments, the outbursts 
of loyalty, the poetic communions which mark the 
letters of the Doer are conspicuous by their absence 
in those of the Waiting One, yet who shall say that 
her role did not require equal courage and the same 
sublime self-sacrifice! 

"Tuesday, October 28, 1862 

"I wish I could make my letters to you interesting. 
But there doesn't anything happen here worthy of 
note. There is nothing thought or talked of except 
war, and it is like switching off the track to write 
about anything else. 'Where thy treasure is, there 
will thy heart be also.' At the present time, my 
treasure is in the army, and of course my thoughts 
tend in that direction. I learned by today's paper 
that a forward movement of the entire Army of the 
Potomac is contemplated. It is what the people in 
general, and Horace Greeley in particular, have been 
clamoring for, and I suppose it is all right; but I 
tremble when I think of the terrible sacrifice of life 
that must follow. This Rebelhon has attained to 
such gigantic growth that rapid and energetic action 
is necessary to stay it. As you say, the sooner it is 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 61 

crushed the better for the Nation. I fear that we are 
on the eve of another murderous and closely-con- 
tested conflict. The prophecy borne of the public 
mind is that we shall be victorious, and this war 
thereby will be sooner terminated. But you may 
fall, and I — Father pity and spare me. . . . 

"Your faith that you will return inspires me with 
confidence. Caesar, if you do come home (and I 
believe you will) the dark days will serve to make 
the future so much brighter. If earnest prayer will 
save you, then shall I see you again. I hope and 
trust. . . . You have acted a noble part and I am 
proud of you . . . and sister Meda has perfect con- 
fidence that you will come back. She thinks you 
have a work to do and will be spared to accomplish 
it. . . . 

"C«sar, how sorry I felt for you when I read about 
your building a chimney and then it smoked. You 
may believe that I had one good cry over your hard- 
ships. . . . 

"One night, just before going to bed, I asked 
little Meda if she didn't want to look at Papa's like- 
ness. She turned her little sad face toward me and 
said, 'No, Mamma, for it will make me cry if I do. 
It almost makes me cry to think of him.' She con- 
tinues to pray for you every night. It would make 
you laugh to hear her give the Lord instructions for 



62 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

your benefit. She has perfect faith that her little 
pleadings will save you. Heaven grant that they 
may!" 

"Sabbath Eve, November 2, 1863 

"Do you ever think what my feelings must be when 
I realize the hardships that you are constantly endur- 
ing, and know that you are marching on a relentless 
foe, and think that perhaps you are already suffering 
on the field of strife with no one to care for or relieve 
you. Oh, the thought is distracting! How will- 
ingly would I help bear the hardships and brave the 
dangers with you if I only had the privilege ! All I 
can do is to hope and pray for you. . . . 

"If this war could end and you come home I know 
I should be the happiest person that ever lived. 
Others may enjoy and appreciate the coming of their 
husbands, but I do not believe any one would feel 
so supremely blessed as I should. While you are no- 
bly battling in defence of our injured country I 
will earnestly pray the Father to spare and protect 
you." 

"Wednesday, November 5, 1863 

"You are occupying dangerous ground, and my 
anxiety for you is most intense. I don't see what 
keeps you from being sick. I should think you 
would be completely worn out. My very heart aches 
for you. You tell me not to worry about you. I 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 63 
wish you also would tell me how I can help it. When 
I know that you are suffering I must suffer too. My 
fears for your safety tell me that you are dearer than 
my own life. ... I am going to coax you to resign 
before long if I can. I feel a kind of confidence that 
you will certainly come home. I wish it were possi- 
ble for you to come home before another battle is 
fought. But I know your brave spirit too well. It 
is useless for me to ask you to leave your post while 
danger is so near. But do not be reckless of your 
precious life. I do not ask you to shirk your duty, 
only just be as careful as you can for my sake as well 
as your own. . . . 

"The thought that you must engage in another 
murderous conflict makes me perfectly wretched, but 
I will not worry you with my own sad feelings ; you 
have enough to endure. I can only pray for you and 
wait the result. You do not know how thankful I 
am that you have confidence in and rely upon Divine 
aid . . . each day is an age to me. . . . When you 
are lonely, think of this, that you are occupying my 
entire thoughts." 

"Friday, November 14, 1862 

"I do not even dare to think of the coming conflict 
— what shall I do when it is a present reality? It 
may bring death to mine and me. . . . How glad I 
am that you have 'drafted' you a horse. Meda says, 



64 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

*Now I wish I had gone to war with Papa, for I know 
he would let me ride on behind him.' . . . 

"How I love to think about your coming home. 
Heaven grant that the bright, joyful hope may not 
prove an illusion. . . . When you think about going 
to another engagement haven't you any fears as to the 
result to yourself? If prayers will save you then 
you will be preserved; but others have been prayed 
for and still have been sacrificed. But I will 
hope. . . . 

"I did not finish my letter yesterday. I got to 
thinking about our National affairs and of the danger 
that menaces you at every step, and I could not 
write. . . . 

"When you went away we were in doubt respecting 
Lottie's fate. The doubt has given way to a dead 
certainty. Lottie's discharge has been signed by a 
higher authority than earth can produce. ... I 
need your sympathy and I know I have it. . , . Dear 
as that brother was to me, my grief is not to be com- 
pared with what it would be if you had fallen instead. 
May kind Heaven spare me a second bereavement. 
. . . Good bye, my dear. Oh, how cruel those 
words sound!" 

"Sabbath Day, November 16, 1863 

"You speak of our Army going to Richmond. 
Before Richmond is reduced thousands of loyal, 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 65 
precious lives must be yielded up. Although it is 
said, as soon as the Democrats come into power, that 
this fearful contest will be ended by a compromise. 
I know what you would say to this, but, Caesar dear, 
if anything like an honorable compromise could be 
effected wouldn't it be better than to continue this 
wholesale slaughter? I know you will say that an 
honorable compromise is impossible at this stage of 
the issue. I am convinced that neither the Govern- 
ment nor the Rebels will yield so long as a remnant 
of our opposing armies remains. I cannot see where 
the end will be. As you say, 'Annihilation to the 
South.' I endorse a hearty amen to that proposition, 
but can we carry it out? With so many despicable 
Northern traitors and Rebel sympathizers among us 
I fear we cannot do it. Heaven knows I will be glad 
to see the sun go down for the last time on every 
traitor. There are a good many even here on the 
Reserve who claim to be good Unionists, but whose 
acts show them to be strong pro-slavery, anti-Admin- 
istration, anti-war men. But you know all this as 
well as I. Oh, how I wish it was rightly ended! 
But we must wait. This wearing suspense must be 
endured. . . . Yours for union and reunion, 

"Jennie." 



66 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

Whether because of the prayers of the devoted wife 
or by virtue of the conviction of the admiring sister 
that he would be preserved for a higher destiny, or 
both, Burrows had passed through the perils of actual 
engagement at South Mountain, Antietam, and Fred- 
ericksburg, with nothing more serious than exhaus- 
tion. After his release from Seminary Hospital, he 
returned to his regiment at Newport News, where he 
settled down for an extended period. His letters at 
this time give a detailed description of camp and 
camp life, and also portray his mental attitude. An 
interesting feature throughout is the complete ab- 
sence of any reference to his sufferings or privations, 
yet the records of the Seventeenth Michigan bear 
testimony to the presence of both. The soldier-hus- 
band emphasizes the bright spots only, — and for 
obvious reasons: 

February 28, 1863 

We reached Fort Monroe about seven in the morn- 
ing. Here we were compelled to remain until ten 
before a boat would leave for Newport News, which 
is some eight miles distant by water. I was glad 
that it happened so, for it gave me an opportunity to 
visit the Fort. There is nothing here but war imple- 
ments. There are plenty of buildings, but they are 
all connected with the War Department. The Fort 
comprises eighty acres, and is said to be the strongest. 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 67 
Its walls of stone and frowning guns seem to defy an 
attack. The inside of the Fort is laid out in walks, 
and shade trees give it a beauty and a pleasantness 
which in the Summer season must be truly delightful. 
A little distance from the Fort lay several war vessels 
and a monitor. There are stores and groceries here, 
and newspapers, and, in fact. Fort Monroe and its 
surroundings present the appearance of a busy little 
town. There was a magnificent hotel here, but since 
this war it has been torn down, as it obstructed the 
view from the Fort up the James River. ... At ten 
we took the boat for Newport News. Here we could 
see the wreck of the Congress and the Cumber- 
land, which latter boat went down with one hun- 
dred and fifty men. Norfolk is but a short distance 
from here. Here at Newport News the Merrimac 
coolly destroyed our boats, and rode king of the seas. 
But that night the Monitor came, and after hours of 
hard fighting drove the Merrimac back, wounded and 
dying, and saved Fortress Monroe and the Nation. 
Had it not been for the timely arrival of the Monitor 
no doubt but the Merrimac would have entered Balti- 
more or Washington. . . . 

The camping ground of the Corps is the most beau- 
tiful I ever beheld. Each regiment seems to strive 
to excel its neighbor in decorating its grounds. Our 
camp is called "Camp Withington." It is laid out 



68 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

in regular streets. The streets are graded and swept 
daily, so that the camp presents the appearance of a 
nice city. The men and officers have been supplied 
with new tents, which are large and comfortable. 
Shelter tents are "played out." The boys have set 
out large evergreen trees through the streets, and in 
front of the officers' tents and in front of their own 
tents, so that our grounds look like a forest, and the 
clean white tent contrasts beautifully with the deep 
green of the pine. . . . 

I arrived at my command a little after noon, and I 
need not tell you of the warm greetings I met. All 
seemed glad to see me. You know that when I left 
the army several officers were in one tent. Now I 
have a tent of my own, clean and new. After seeing 
the Colonel, and getting mustered, I thought I would 
put up my tent. The boys did it for me, and made 
me a nice bunk and table, and it would do your soul 
good to look in here now and see me sitting in a chair 
which I bought in Cleveland, before a table covered 
with books, beside a bed raised up, made of pine 
boughs. My trappings are hung up about my tent, 
so in fact it looks quite like home, with the exception 
of two little articles, — yourself and Meda. Will you 
furnish me with these? I have a thick double blan- 
ket to put under me and a comfortable to put over me. 
Such is our camp. As to eating, we have oysters by 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 69 

the pailful, as we are not more than twenty rods from 
the water, soft bread, ham, coffee, and everything 
almost, even good potatoes. I have sent for a camp 
stove, and then my furniture will be complete. No 
regiment could be pleasanter situated. 

Camp Withington, Newport News, 

Monday Eve, March 2, 1863 

Tonight the moon is throwing its mellow light over 
sleeping Nature, and I have been walking in front of 
my tent, ruminating upon the past, and building 
hopes for the future. Could bright fancies of the 
mind be woven into realities how many Edens would 
spring into happy being! Better that it is not 
granted us though, for if it were true we might not 
look higher. But I will shut out the world, and 
breathe a prayer for you and ours. . . .' 

Tuesday Evening, March 3, 1863 

The evenings now are delightful, and it is inexpres- 
sible joy to wander along the shores of the beautiful 
and classic James. Upon its bosom once rode the 
gem of empire ; now its waters are ruffled by the black 
monitors of war, struggling for that empire's perpe- 
tuity. What a place for thought is the bank of some 
mighty water! As I stood tonight, and beheld in the 
far distance some moonlit wave nearing the shore, 
until at length it perished beneath the waters, I 
thought how similar were earth's anticipated joys. 



70 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

We look out upon the broad sea of life, and watch 
eagerly for the approach of some anticipated joy, but 
ere it reaches us some cruel wave of fate buries it 
beneath its dark water. But it is not always thus. 

Newport News, Virginia, 
Tuesday, March 10, 1863 

You say people are aroused a little over the Con- 
scription Bill, and, Jennie, you did get off a little 
patriotism, didn't you? Ha! -ha! Aren't you glad 
now that your "hubby" is in the war? You couldn't 
crow so if your "hubby" was one of the shirks, could 
you ? He who is able to strike one blow and remains 
at home, in times like these, is a traitor to his coun- 
try, to his family, and to his God. What a proud 
thing it is to be drafted in this war! I had rather die 
than be dragged up to my duty and whipped to per- 
form it ! . . . 

On this same date, which was before the transferal 
of his regiment to the Western Army, Burrows wrote 
to one of the Kalamazoo papers : 

"Much is said at home about the demoralization of 
the army, and the daily papers, circulated through our 
camps, are filled with positive assertions that the army 
has become a lawless mob. Never was a greater 
falsehood written; and it is well known where it has 
its origin. It springs from the poisoned tongue of 
'Copperheads,' who have done nothing but hiss and 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 71 
sting from the beginning of this bloody rebelhon. 
They have opposed every measure of the Administra- 
tion that aimed a blow at traitors. The Confiscation 
Act was unconstitutional; the Emancipation Procla- 
mation was barbarous ; the suspension of the 'habeas 
corpus' was tyrannical; and our defeats have been 
followed with utter demoralization. Strange how 
Party pride and Party prejudice will blind the human 
heart! Strange that there are those at the North, 
reared into manhood under the benign influence of a 
free Government, who would destroy that Govern- 
ment to satisfy Party animosity. I should think that 
in their waking hours, and in their hideous dreams, 
the bleeding form of a betrayed Republic would rise 
before them and shout in their ears, 'Guilty! guilty!' 
But no; they are deaf to the cries of their country. 
Their Party is their idol. To it they bow down in 
blind adoration, forgetting their children, their coun- 
try, and their God. But we will tell them this, that 
the Republic will live in spite of them. That the 
soldier is not demoralized. That the Confiscation 
Act and the Emancipation Proclamation are stars of 
hope by which we draw our swords to strike for Lib- 
erty and Union! That he who dares breathe the 
word 'Compromise' upon any other terms than uncon- 
ditional submission to the National Government is a 
traitor doubly damned. The graves of our murdered 



72 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

brothers cry out against it. We will have but one 
country, one flag, one common Union!" 

Again writing to his wife, Burrows pays his re- 
spects to the Pacifists of 1863: 

Newport News, Virginia, 
Thursday, March 12, 1863 

The Copperheads are quiet now, but they are only 
winding themselves up for a more desperate assault 
the coming Fall. Peace is their motto. Soon they 
will throw their foul banner to the breeze, and I fear 
that thousands of the sick-hearted at the North will 
take shelter underneath its enticing shadow. But 
woe betide us when we shall accept peace based upon 
any other foundation than reconstruction and re- 
union ! If compromise is effected by giving to slav- 
ery more territory, we shall cover ourselves with dis- 
honor and disgrace, and leave our children a legacy 
of shame, and when we have done all this the war is 
not over. Slavery and freedom will war with each 
other till one is conquered and annihilated. It is for 
the people of the North to say which it shall be. God 
grant that American liberty shall not find its grave 
here! Here it was born, and here let it grow and 
prosper through all time. . . . 

The dramatic entrance by which the Seventeenth 
Michigan became a part of the Union forces made life 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 73 

at Newport News an anti-climax. With nothing be- 
yond the daily routine to record. Burrows' letters 
home are filled with introspection and ruminations 
not ordinarily associated with the soldier's life: 

^ Newport News, Virginia, 

Saturday, March 14, 1863 

Home letters are camp joys. They lift the dark 
curtain of the present, and point us to our future 
Eden. Glad reminders of what we were, and what 
we may yet be when the bloody tide of war shall ebb, 
and the almighty fiat shall be stamped upon it! 
Peace be still ! Happy, happy time ! And yet how 
many bright dreams, how many cherished hopes will 
lie buried beneath that silent flood! War! the 
maniac's weapon, the mighty power that leads truant 
reason back to its deserted throne, and reinstates it 
there, all powerful and omnipotent. But I trust this 
war is nearly closed, that history is writing the last 
act of this bloody tragedy. And when the curtain 
shuts out the last scene, may we turn from this sick- 
ening sight, a wiser, freer, and nobler people, with 
liberty triumphant and tyranny dethroned. But 
until this glorious consummation let the tide roll on, 
bloody and remorseless, till treason is engulfed be- 
neath its gurgling water, and the proud Ship of State, 
freighted with the world's idle hope, shall ride tri- 
umphant into the harbor of peace. 



74 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

Newport News, Virginia, 
Wednesday Evening, March 18, 1863 

When I think of the desolation and havoc this war 
is making, when I in fancy follow in its bloody wake 
and gather up the shattered hopes and blighted pros- 
pects of a once happy people, I cannot but wonder 
for a moment why a just and outraged God does not 
hurl thunderbolts of destruction upon the head of 
every guilty traitor, and blast that hideous embryo of 
despotic empire. Great God! how long must we 
suffer? How long must the thunders of war break 
the quiet of this people! Yet it is just. Well did 
Jefferson say, "I tremble for my country when I 
remember that God is just." Oh, Jennie, how I hate 
a traitor! Hate is a tame word, — I loathe them! 
And while I cling to my home as the Eden of earth, I 
cannot bear the thought of quitting the field until 
every traitor shall bite the dust, or bow in humble 
submission to the flag of my country. Dear old 
emblem of Liberty, how I love you! Must your 
bright stars go down, must your clear blue be 
shrouded in darkness? Never, so long as there is an 
arm to strike ! Never did I realize so fully the awful 
consequences of this struggle. We must either be 
conquered or conquer. If we fail — heavens, what a 
future! Liberty dead, freedom buried, and the 
world's last hope extinguished ! Then the knee must 



1863] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 75 

learn to bow to every tyrant's nod, and our own chil- 
dren shriek beneath the lash of remorseless nobility. 
What then will be our homes and their joys?, 
Blighted all. But this must not, cannot, shall not be. 
Treason shall die. The flag of our country shall 
again wave over every foot of American soil, and her 
stars shall mount undimmed into her cloudless blue. 
Traitors shall reverence it, treason shall cower be- 
neath it and tremble in its holy presence, for it is our 
flag, God's, and Liberty's. 

I know how you and those North suffer in our 
absence, yet you must all be stout-hearted in these 
times, and when we have conquered we will return to 
you to enjoy with you the peace we have purchased. 
Be brave, heroic, and true. Mould the heart of man 
to daring deeds, and counsel naught but honor. 
Remember that these are times that try men's souls, 
and that the result of this contest will be felt to the 
latest generation. Here is a milestone on the high- 
way of empire. Let us not write upon it, "Perished 
here." All the nations are looking toward us. Lib- 
erty lies bleeding at our feet, and cries for help. 
Oppressed families are stretching their bleeding hands 
toward us, and imploring our aid. May we strike till 
Liberty's wounds are bound up, and Humanity disen- 
thralled. Compromise? Never! Never surrender 
as long as one drop of blood warms the patriotic 



76 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1862 

heart. If we are true to our duty, true to ourselves, 
and true to posterity we will come out of this struggle 
gloriously triumphant, and transmit to our children 
a country redeemed and a liberty unfettered. . . . 



CHAPTER III 

The Soldier-Husband Icontinuedl. 1863-1864 

THE Seventeenth was in Virginia and Maryland 
until March, 1863, when it was transported, 
with the Ninth Corps, to Louisville, Kentucky. It 
was stationed in various parts of the State until 
ordered to join General Grant, then at Vicksburg, 
Mississippi. Captain Burrows records some of his 
experiences while in Louisville in letters to his wife: 

United States Hotel, 
Louisville, Kentucky, March 30, 1863 

It would do your soul good to visit this State in 
these times. You find no neutral men or women. 
The Union people are warm, true friends, and you 
cannot be with them but a moment before you seem 
to have known them for years. While marching up 
town on our arrival I met a lady and gentleman who 
stopped me. Both shook hands warmly, welcomed 
us to the State, and their dark Southern eyes, 
moistened with tears, told of the noble, true spirit 
within. . . . 

Two of the most prominent ladies at the supper 
were Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Haskin, — both unflinch- 
ingly loyal women. They asked me to call upon 

77 



78 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

them before I left the city. . . . Mrs. Johnson has 
spent most of her time in the hospitals of the city, 
and was at the battle of P. Landing, administering to 
the wounded and dying. I wish you could see her 
dark eyes flash as she talks of this Rebellion. She is 
surrounded by traitors, and yet from every window 
in her house waves the Stars and Stripes. When 
Bragg was within five miles of the city and demanding 
its surrender, and thousands of famiUes were moving 
across the river, she threw our flag from every window, 
and said that she would not desert it, — never ! Gen- 
eral Nelson rode by the house and complimented her 
upon her bravery. Mrs. Haskin is Mrs. Johnson's 
daughter, and she and her husband were born there, 
and are both unflinching in their loyalty. I should 
like to have him talk with some of our Copperheads 
at the North. Oh ! how he despises them ! He is a 
slaveholder, but says that slavery is the cause of this 
trouble, and that the war must not end till the last 
vestige of it is swept from the land. He says that if 
the South succeed, and Kentucky links her destiny 
with her, he will abandon his State. . . . 

How pleasant it is for the soldier to find such warm 
greetings in a traitor's land! But do not think that 
all the people are so. In walking along the streets 
we could easily tell the loyal people. The "Reb" 
ladies are the meanest creatures I ever saw. We 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 79 

would meet them, and they would turn out as far as 
the sidewalk would allow, and even hold up their 
dresses, as if passing something too foul to touch. 
Miserable fools! I wonder if they thought it 
offended us! We met four or five little girls, and 
they turned up their noses, and Captain Tyler 
remarked, "You are a little Reb," when the whole 
group joined in saying, "We are Rebels too." 

Bahdstowk, Kektticky, 
April 1, 1863 

I wish we had more Butlers. But it would do us no 
good if we had, for our weak-kneed Administration 
would lay them on the shelf at the behest of every con- 
servative demagogue. The President knows that 
Jeff Davis and his clique don't hke Butler, and to 
please them he has deprived the Nation of his serv- 
ices! Out with such a milk-and-water man! But 
let it work. All may be well yet. . . . 

And all was yet to be well. The boy-Captain, 
heart-broken over the scenes of death and desolation, 
could not see it, but even with his criticism he had 
faith to believe it. The little space of two years gave 
him the power to understand the quiet but far-seeing, 
long-suffering Lincoln. 

Lebanon", Kekttjcky, 
Sabbath Eve, April 5, 1863 

When we entered this place we took possession of 
the printing press, and tomorrow we strike off the first 



8o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

issue of the "Union Vidette," as we call it. I will 
send you a copy, Jennie. It is real fun to soldier 
out here in Kentucky, because the people are divided 
and so earnest. The traitors are spunky and inso- 
lent, the Union people warm and true. . . . 

News of the illness of his little daughter brings out 
an expression of the depth of his devotion. Even the 
threatened dissolution of the Nation is forgotten in his 
anxiety for her health and life: 

Lebanon, Kentucky, 
Wednesday, April S, 1863 

I am pained that our little darling has been sick. 
Poor thing! Has she not suffered enough! What 
crime has she committed that she must thus be tor- 
mented even in infancy! Pardon that thought, that 
seems to reflect upon Him who orders all things well. 
Oh ! Jennie, take good care of her. Do not suffer a 
single care or sorrow to ruffle the sunny deep of her 
gentle spirit. Remember a father's love for her, how 
he dotes upon her, and shapes his every act for her 
future good. And keep her! Oh, Jennie, what a 
world this would be to us if that star in our heaven 
should go down! Heaven spare us the affliction! 
Jennie, do not take out her little letters, please. I 
want to see them. Those tracings made by her hand 
would be meaningless to others, but to you and me 
they have a language, oh, how dear! I could sit 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 81 
down in my lonely tent and read her letters for hours 
together. Let her send them, please. . . . 

It is difficult for the present generation to appre- 
ciate the depth of the hatred which entered into the 
struggle, or to reconcile the expression which follows 
with the tender words which precede. Yet these are 
extracts from the same letter, and this ghastly wish 
is written by a man who, under normal circumstances, 
was generous and forgiving: 

"A rumor is prevalent here that Charleston is taken. 
Glory to God! I hope that hell-hole of treason is 
ours, and that the flag of our country waves over its 
ruins. I would like Byron's dream of 'Darkness' 
to be to the people of Charleston a bitter reahty, 'for 
they truly did keep in that city a mass of holy things 
for an unholy usage.' Let only two of that city 
survive, and let them be enemies. Let them rake up 
with their skeleton hands the dying embers of their 
bhghted hopes, behold each other's hideous aspect 
and die ! How I would like to be in Charleston, and 
see the lackeys bow to the flag they once would spit 
upon! This Rebellion is dead! Its fall is sealed, 
and the men who instigated it will 'go back to the 
foul earth from whence they sprung, upwept, unhon- 
ored, and unsung.' " 

Four days later Captain Burrows receives fuller 
news from home, and expresses his joy over his 



82 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

daughter's convalescence. In the same letter he 
bursts into a patriotic frenzy which today seems over- 
wrought, yet in the light of his later services to the 
country no one can doubt its sincerity. Those were 
the days of high-sounding expressions, and what Bur- 
rows writes is but the same language as that with which 
he later swayed his audiences, and which was ac- 
cepted by his hearers as the highest form of oratory. 
It was what Jennie would expect from her hero, and 
to say less would have seemed to her a step backwards 
in what she had learned to adore : 

Camp of the Seventeenth Michigan Infanthy, 
Lebanon, Kentucky, Sabbath, April 12, 1863 

Yesterday we received our back mail, and it was 
a day of mingled joy and sadness. For many it 
brought the good intelligence of the health and hap- 
piness of friends and kindred; to some the sad tale of 
sickness, suffering, and death. As for myself, receiv- 
ing four priceless letters from you, informing me of 
the illness and recovery of our darling pet, I feel like 
one who all unconscious treads the verge of some 
terrible precipice, and wakes to see the yawning gulf 
beneath, the danger past, and thanks his God that he 
is safe. Oh! had she died, should she die, while I 
am here away from her, my own unanchored soul, 
rocked and lashed by the wild surges of despair, 
would drift to ruin and death. It will not, can not 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 83 

be! Jennie, I need not tell you how I idolize her. 
Search your own heart, and measure my love. She 
is our all, our only one, and without her what would 
that home be to which we are looking, and for which 
we are toiling and sacrificing? A blighted Eden, a 
garden without a flower, a paradise without a rose, a 
Heaven without a God. . . . 

Jennie, I think your fears are too great. Should 
we be brought face to face with our hell-born foes, 
fear not the result, for the God of justice rides on the 
storm, and though thousands of brave and manly 
hearts should perish in the contest, if we but gain the 
victory, redeem our country, and reinstate order and 
peace, the sacrifice though costly should be freely 
given. Let the storm rage, let the earth tremble 
beneath the leaden tread of marshaling hosts. Let 
the mountains speak the echoes of our cannon. Let 
rivers of blood roll from East to West, from North to 
South, until our land shall be woven with arteries; 
let carnage and devastation sweep over the land in 
mad revelry, if over all this ruin the flag of our coun- 
try, dear emblem of Liberty, can float in triumph. 
Then do not fear for me. If we move forward, follow 
us with your prayers, and in the hour of battle the 
memory of you and ours will nerve our arms and bid 
us "strike until the last armed foe expires" .... 

You have spoken in several of your letters of a 



84 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

letter I wrote to you which you say was "rather 
extraordinary." I do not remember it. If it was 
burdened with patriotism, it was only the out-breath- 
ings of a heart wedded to country and hberty. It 
must have been written at one of those moments in 
my hfe when I was aroused to the consciousness of 
the times in which we live, and the terrible responsi- 
bilities devolving upon us. A Nation is ours to 
preserve or to destroy. The memories of the past, 
the hopes of the present, and the fond anticipations 
of the future, all hang breathless upon our action. 
The soul is weighed down under this load of respon- 
sibility, and agonizes to think that it is doing so little. 
Show me the star of duty, and I will follow it though 
I perish. I know not whether it be to fight the armed 
traitor in the field, or the skulking sneak that hides 
under the flag he is too cowardly to betray. Oh, how 
I hate the traitor, and above all a Northern one, who, 
with no excuse but Party prejudice, would destroy a 
Government to satisfy Party pride. Oh! you miser- 
able offscourings of a polluted Party! Language is 
inadequate to portray your crimes. History can but 
give their outline. They are as black as hell. Your 
own children will hate you. Your kindred will for- 
sake you. Traitors in arms will disown you. All 
posterity will curse you. Your country will disin- 
herit you. And history will embalm your names in 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 85 

eternal infamy. The Tories of the Revolution were 
angels by the side of you. . . . 

Of his transfer to the Western Army, Burrows 
writes to the Kalamazoo paper, under date of April 
22, 1863: 

"On the evening of the l8th of last month, while 
at Newport News, Va., we received orders to be ready 
to march at daylight on the following morning, with 
four days' rations and sixty rounds of cartridges. 
Such preparations were decidedly ominous, and 
indicative of a long march, perhaps a skirmish, and 
gave birth to a thousand surmises and as many vague 
and groundless rumors. But the morning dispelled 
all doubts, for a report that we were going westward 
had settled down into a well-grounded belief, and 
with light hearts we struck tents, slung knapsacks, 
and bade 'good by' to the Army of the Potomac. But 
glad as we were to link our destiny with the victorious 
forces of the West, it was, nevertheless, with many 
feelings of regret that we took leave of an army which, 
however much it may have suffered from the treachery 
or ambition of its leaders, is, notwithstanding, uncon- 
querable in purpose and invincible in arms. On the 
morning of the 19th, the First and and Second 
Divisions of the Ninth Army Corps (the Third 
Division having previously been ordered to Suffolk, 



86 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

Va.) marched to the landing, and took transports for 
Baltimore. From the landing could be distinctly 
seen the wrecks of the Cumberland and Congress, 
which resisted the approach of the rebel Merrimac 
when our Monitor came to the rescue, and drove that 
monster engine of treason back to its dark moorings. 
"In the afternoon we weighed anchor, and for some 
reason sailed for Norfolk, where we were compelled 
by a severe storm to remain nearly twenty-four hours. 
Curiosity led me to visit the city. It is now almost 
wholly deserted, its places of business are closed, its 
once busy mart is as silent as the grave, and as I 
passed along its narrow, dirty streets, dimly lighted 
by a few flickering lamps, no sound fell upon the ear 
but the hollow echo of the measured tread of the 
sentinel as he paced his lonely beat. On the 19th 
we again set sail for Baltimore, where we landed on 
the morning of the 22d. Here, for the first time, we 
received positive intelligence of our destination ; and 
when it was announced that we were to be in the 
Department of the hero of the Ninth Army Corps, one 
wild shout of exultation burst from the lips of that 
devoted soldiery. In the evening we again took up 
our line of march, or rather took our quarters in the 
cars, and rolled on toward the waters of the Ohio. 
Our trip was a pleasant one, and on every side the 
eye was regaled by a thousand scenes, new to us, and 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 87 

full of interest. — Harper's Ferry was a point of uni- 
versal attraction. Here treason and loyalty had 
struggled in deadly conflict, and had alternately tri- 
umphed. Here, too, treachery had worked its dark 
and damning purpose and received here its first pun- 
ishment. Today Harper's Ferry is a mass of ruins." 
Turning again to his home, he tells of his sur- 
roundings in his new camp, emphasizing the comforts 
to ease the anxiety: 

Camp of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, 
Lebanon, Kentucky, Sabbath Eve, April 19, 1863 

My tent, twelve feet square, is pitched on a beau- 
tiful eminence near a pleasant wood on the right, a 
lofty mountain in front, and the quiet, unattractive 
city of Lebanon on the left rear. The floor of my 
tent is of God's own make, and therefore quite dur- 
able. I am seated at a table of my own manufacture, 
on the right of which is my fireplace, on the left my 
"soldier's couch." Perhaps you would like to know 
what sort of fireplace I have. The Yankees are great 
for invention. Well, we dig a hole in the ground 
about a foot deep and a foot wide, running from the 
inner corner of our tent to some ten feet outside. 
This ditch we cover with flat stones, all except about 
a foot on either end. Outside I have built a chimney 
of sods, about four feet high. When this is com- 
pleted, we build our fire in the tent in this ditch, and 



88 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

it works to a charm and makes our tents quite com- 
fortable. My bed is made by driving four crotches 
in the ground, and putting slender poles from head to 
foot. These I have covered with boughs first, and 
now I have about a foot of straw on top of these. 
Upon this I spread the fly to my tent and one blanket, 
and cover myself with blankets, and it is gloriously 
comfortable. My bed is a complete success. My 
table is made out of rough boards, but covered with 
newspapers in the latest approved style. I wish you 
could look in here and see my table tonight, orna- 
mented with books. You know I brought some, and 
pictures. You know what pictures I mean — yours 
and Meda's. They constitute the chief ornaments, 
— at least to my heart. I have walled them in with 
some beautiful geological specimens which I have 
obtained in this State of natural curiosities, and inside 
this breastwork of rocks I have a wreath of flowers, 
with which the earth in this region is brightened even 
at this time of the year. My table would grace a 
parlor. My living is good, and I have everything 
which I could expect in the field. And I think I 
shall enjoy our Summer campaign if it is not too warm, 
and we are not compelled to perform too many long 
marches. . . . 

There was a ball here in Lebanon on last Friday 
evening, given for the benefit of the officers. I did 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 89 
not attend. I think it does not look well for officers 
to so far forget their own families as to spree it with 

the fast Kentucky ladies. I told you about 

. He returned to our regiment the first of last 



week, and he made a perfect fool of himself by palm- 
ing himself ofif as a bachelor, and dancing with a 
young girl all night, and this too, coming direct from 
the embrace of wife and children. Poor fool ! I do 
not say but such a course could be pursued inno- 
cently, but I do say that it is unbecoming, and would 
do violence to the affections of a pure heart. For 
myself, my thoughts are at home, and no pleasure is 
so sweet to me here in the field as remaining in my 
tent, ornamented with the pictures of wife and child, 
and talking with them in that language of the heart, 
silent yet deep. Holy hours ! Dear cherished mem- 
ories! . . . 

Jennie's righteous indignation blazes forth in her 
reply. Not even the assurances that "the course 
pursued" by the offenders "may be innocent" offers 
any palliation. Her own tears and heart-aches and 
loneliness are too real to reconcile pleasure or light- 
ness of action with the grimness of war: 

May 10, 1863 

"You write that some of the married officers are 
playing themselves off as single men, and carrying on 



90 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

flirtations with the fast ladies of Kentucky. Shame 
upon them! They have no respect for themselves 
or regard for the happiness of those loved ones they 
leave at home. A lifetime of the strongest moral 
rectitude will scarcely suffice to restore that confidence 
to their injured wives which they are now so wantonly 
destroying. Better both for them and their families 
that they never live to return to the homes which they 
have dishonored, and the hearts they have betrayed. 
Perhaps they think because they are so far from home 
their friends may never hear of their miserable con- 
duct. But sooner or later it will surely reach them. 
There are ready friends whose business it is to retail 
such precious scandal. You say they may be inno- 
cent — I cannot agree with you. Innocence and 
truth never prompt acts so cruel and censurable. 
They may be thoughtless, but not innocent; and if 
their evil acts are persisted in they merit the scorn 
and loathing of every true man and woman. . . ." 

While at Columbia, Kentucky, because of Captain 
Burrows' physical inability to endure the full routine 
of the soldier's life, he was made Provost Marshal, 
and the opportunity which this gave him to enforce 
discipUne upon the sullen Southern non-combatants 
filled him with a joy which was almost unholy. 
These letters are boyish in the expression of his 
exuberance : 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 91 

Lebanon, Sabbath Eve, April 26, 1863 

The late order of General Burnside is making the 
"Rebs" quake in this quarter, and I am glad to see it. 
The people have been allowed to talk treason too 
long, and now they must stop. Yesterday a Presby- 
terian minister in this place, pastor of the leading 
church, was arrested, and a Rebel officer found con- 
cealed in his house. He will have to pack up his 
duds and go to "his friends." That is glorious! 
Then there is another beautiful thing in this arrange- 
ment, — all officers and soldiers are called upon to 
enforce this order. If I don't arrest the first man or 
woman that dares say one word against our Govern- 
ment, then my name is not Caesar! We will have 
some good times trying and hanging these vipers! 
We will make them hunt their holes! 

Columbia, Adaie County, 
Thursday, April 30, 1863 

I am Provost Marshal of this city, and have a great 
amount of labor to do. No one can pass our lines 
without a pass from me, and no one can get a pass 
from me unless he takes the oath of allegiance. I 
administered the oath to thirty in less than three 
hours. I stopped all the mail going South, and will 
not let any more pass for the present. Oh! how I 
love to make the "Rebs" swear! You know how I 
hke traitors, and you can judge how much sympathy 



92 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

I show them! I shall arrest every man who talks 
treason, and send him to Headquarters. It would 
tickle you to see some of these "Rebs" choke when 
they swallow the oath, but it must go down. It will 
do them good ! . . . 

That the gentle Jennie at home was in hearty sym- 
pathy with her husband's fierce threats cannot be 
doubted after reading this extract: 

May 6, 1863 

"You write that you are now stationed at Columbia, 
and that you are Provost Marshal of that place. Is 
not that quite a responsible position? ... I hope 
you will not show the least shadow of mercy to 
traitors; but caution is unnecessary. I fully under- 
stand your views. Please send me a copy of the 
'piir you are dosing them with. . . ." 

Captain Burrows continues his detailed account of 
the performance of his duty: 

Office of Provost Marshal, 

Columbia, May 2, 1863 

My labors are great in my present position of 
Provost Marshal, but I like it very much. I have 
administered the oath to over 300, and not a man or 
woman can pass beyond our lines without taking it. 
One man here in town swore he would not take the 
oath. Yesterday morning, while his horse was 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 93 
hitched at the door, some one came up and drove it 
off. It was necessary for him to go beyond the hnes 
to get it. And, as a matter of course, he had to take 
the oath. It went down hard. The penalty for 
violating an oath is death. . . . 

Office of Pbovost Marshal, 

Columbia, May 10, 1863 

As we were marching through the town I received 
orders from Colonel Morrison, our Brigade Com- 
mander, to remain in the place and resume my duties 
as Provost Marshal. I took this as quite a compli- 
ment, and felt still more complimented after I learned 
that the citizens had petitioned the Colonel for my 
return. I have some warm friends here, among 
whom is Judge Bramlette, the Union nominee for 
Governor. He says the course I have pursued is just, 
and ought to have been adopted long before this. I 
think I told you in my last that I was not instructed to 
administer the oath of allegiance, but I wanted to do 
it, and not a man or woman can leave till the pill is 
taken. One man skulked out, and I am going to 
send for him in the morning. He has got to take it 
or "go up." ... I send in this a copy of the oath. 
What do you think of it? Isn't it glorious?. . . 

On May 2 and 3, 1863, General Hooker, who had 
succeeded General Burnside in command of the Army 



94 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

of the Potomac, met Lee and Jackson at Chancellors- 
ville, and was disastrously defeated. Gloom settled 
down upon the North, and the Union army itself 
found it difficult to conceal its despair. This letter 
is typical in its expression, frankly acknowledging the 
perilous situation but doggedly insisting upon ulti- 
mate success: 

CoLUBiBiA, Kentucky, 

May 17, 1863 

You have learned of our defeat on the Rappahan- 
nock. My heart is discouraged. Hooker, on whom 
the people and the Army had placed their hopes, is 
out-generaled and ruined. To whom shall we look 
now? Hooker is not a general. 

You ask me the cause of his defeat. I think it was 
nothing more than inability to command such an 
army. He was out-generaled, and Lee has shown 
himself to be the greatest spirit of the age. Hooker 
threw part of his army in the rear and part in front, 
thereby weakening his force and separating them 
beyond supporting distance. Lee hurls all his forces 
upon Hooker and routs him, and then, by a quick 
march, pounces upon Sedgwick, driving him across 
the river, almost annihilating him. Thus, with an in- 
ferior number, Lee defeats the Army of the Potomac. 
By latest accounts, Lee is moving upon Washington, 
and soon the Capital will again be in danger. I 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 95 

would not be surprised if McClellan was again placed 
in command of the Army of the Potomac. You know 
I am not a McClellan man, but I have never doubted 
his military abihty. The great difficulty with him is, 
he is too slow, too timid. He commenced a siege 
against Yorktown with 108,000 men when it was 
held by only 15,000 of the enemy, and whenever he 
meets the enemy he hesitates and pauses till the 
enemy gains a sufficient amount of strength to success- 
fully resist or retreat. Were he not a timid man he 
would be the hero of the hour. 

But it is idle to speculate upon his virtues. When 
the Nation is beggared, then, perhaps. Heaven will 
give us a man who can use the Nation's resources for 
our prosperity. Jennie, do not think by this letter 
that I am ready to surrender. Never! as long as I 
live ! We shall conquer in the end. Do not be dis- 
couraged. We have everything to urge us onwards. 
If we are defeated, then war and devastation will 
sweep over this land until all is enveloped'in a com- 
mon ruin. . . . 

Office op Peovost Mahshai, 
Columbia, May 19, 1863 

Not having any more news to write, what shall I 
say? It is useless to tell you of my love for you and 
our little one. It is as pure as Heaven and as deep 
as the universe. You know it all. How happy we 



96 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

shall be when this cruel war is brought to a close, and 
we, in our own dear home, can partake of its home 
joys, which fill the heart with wild delight. Heaven 
speed that hour ! . . . 

Burrows found it more and more difficult to keep 
up with the army requirements because of his weak- 
ened physical condition; for he had never regained his 
strength after the strenuous days of South Mountain 
and Antietam. Just when it seemed inevitable that 
he would be obliged to return home, the way opened 
for him to continue in service: 

Office of Provost Marshal, 

Columbia, May 28, 1863 

General Welch is here in command. He is the 
Commander of the First Division. He reached here 
day before yesterday. He is a splendid man. Al- 
though Belcher was Brigade Provost Marshal, yet I 
have done so well that I shall continue in my present 
position by order of General Welch. . . . 

It almost kills me to march. Tomorrow morning 
I ride, as the Colonel is going to Lebanon, and I will 
act as Lieutenant-Colonel on the march. I went up 
to General Welch's Headquarters this morning — like 
him very much. Colonel Luce told him that I could 
not walk, and that I thought of resigning. The Gen- 
eral said, "Do not resign, and I will get you a position 
as a staff officer." . . . 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 97 
This new appointment separated Captain Bur 
rows from his comrades of the Seventeenth Michigan 
which was a real regret ; but it had its compensations 
He hastens to reassure the anxious heart of the wait 
ing wife at home by his picture of his changed sur 
roundings : 

Headquarters First Division, G.A.C. 
ViCKSBUHG, Monday, June 22, 1863 

This evening finds me in my tent at the Head- 
quarters of General Welch, in excellent health and 
the best of spirits. You cannot imagine how much 
easier I am going to have it here than I did with my 
company. If course I regret to leave the shattered 
remnant of that noble band of boys who have stood 
beside me in so many well-fought battles, who bear 
upon their breasts the scars of South Mountain, 
Antietam, and Fredericksburg; with whom I have 
shared the privations of the camp and the hardships 
of the march, and gathered with them around the 
lonely grave of some fallen comrade, weeping over 
his early end. Yet, in such a cause as this our 
private feelings must give way to the public interest, 
and our hearts for the time being must be wedded to 
the public good. While with them I feel that I have 
done my duty to them and my country, and if the star 
of duty calls me to another field of action I must 
follow in its light. My ambition knows no bounds 



98 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

in such a contest as this, where the fate of a Repubhc, 
the happiness of my family, and the hopes of the 
world are all involved in the issues of the mighty 
present. The deep-seated affections of the human 
heart cannot be outrooted, neither must our country 
be forgotten. 

But I was going to tell you how much easier I will 
have it here than in my company. In the regiment 
all officers have been reduced in baggage to a very 
small amount, and were deprived of wall tents, com- 
pelled to use the shelter tents, and besides all this 
must endure the tedious march. Here I have my 
wall tent, with some one to put it up for me. My 
table, chairs, and desk furnished, a horse and trap- 
pings furnished by the Government, so that all ex- 
pected expense is done away with. Isn't it glorious ! 
Now, Jennie, you have not half the reason to worry 
about me that you had before. . . . 

There is no mention in the letters which exist of 
the battle of Jackson, which was fought on July 1 1 , 
1863, but G.A.R. Commander Samuel J. Lawrence 
has recorded this story of Captain Burrows' gallantry 
inaction: 

"The late General William Shakespeare," he 
relates, "had been shot down and left upon the field. 
When Captain Burrows missed him, he rushed back 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 99 
to rescue him. Reaching the wounded officer, Bur- 
rows insisted on carrying him off the field, ahhough 
the General ordered him to leave him there to die. 
Bullets were humming like bees, and it seemed impos- 
sible for a man to live in such a fire, but Burrows got 
through and brought the General with him." 

As an officer. Burrows demonstrated his leadership 
as he afterwards showed it in his statesmanship. 
"He was the coolest man," said William Winegar of 
Grand Rapids, a member of his company, "and one 
of the bravest I ever saw in battle. He was an 
inspiration to all of us, and was beloved by his com- 
rades as almost no other man was beloved." 

The stubbornness with which the people in the 
eastern third of the State of Tennessee refused all 
overtures to join the Confederacy made them the 
mark for vicious reprisals. Burrows' regiment was a 
part of the Union forces sent to the border for their 
protection. The acts of wanton cruelty practiced 
upon these non-combatants inflamed his hatred for 
the Rebels, and erroneously confirmed his belief that 
the war itself, from a Southern standpoint, was being 
conducted upon these inhuman lines. He pours out 
his indignation to the wife at home : 

COLTIMBIA, KeXTTTCKT, 

Friday Afternoon, May 22, 1863 

.... You say, speaking of the privilege denied 



100 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

us of speaking face to face, that in these war times 
"we must accustom ourselves to self-denials." No 
doubt but that I am missed in the home circle; no 
doubt but that had your pillow a tongue it would tell 
a tale of sleepless nights and troubled visions; no 
doubt but that the struggle at parting with my wife 
and child was heart-rending; no doubt but that the 
vision of our happy home, forsaken for our country, 
will be forever impressed upon our memory; no doubt 
but that we spend many a lonely hour thinking of joys 
forsaken, and fearing that perhaps they may never 
again be reahzed, — ^yet all this pain and suffering 
which we are enduring for the good of our common 
mother country is but a drop to the wild ocean of grief 
and wretchedness which has engulfed East Tennessee, 
and whose mad waves are now lashing at the shores 
of the border States, and threaten to overwhelm them 
and us in a common ruin. 

Here neither life, liberty, nor property is secure. 
Bands of lawless robbers and murderers infest even 
valleys and mountains, licensed to plunder and lay 
waste the whole land until desolation and ruin shall 
reign supreme. The protest of the father, the 
entreaties of the mother, the pleadings of helpless 
infancy are alike inadequate to move to pity their icy 
hearts. Treason has taken possession of their lives, 
and he who has deliberately entered upon a plan for 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 101 

destroying this Government is ready to play a part in 
any tragedy however dark and bloody. Indeed, com- 
mon vices whiten into seeming virtues. . . . We 
sacrifice much, endure much, but are you not willing 
to bear all until these wrongs are righted, and these 
monsters in human shape are hunted from the face 
of this fair earth? Never will I, for one, Hke a 
dastard coward, surrender to these outlaws, and let 
them hunt from my home the wife and child for whom 
I have given up my life to protect and defend. To do 
it will be treason supreme. 

Then, Jennie, when you are suffering and agoniz- 
ing for me far away, think of the thousand bleeding 
hearts we are struggling to bind up, and let it nerve 
you to endure your hardships, and let it arouse all 
that is womanly in your noble nature. You say that 
you do not believe but that those wives who send their 
husbands so freely to the war do it from other motives 
than patriotism. I agree with you fully. I would 
not have you say to me, "Go to war" ; it would argue 
a lack of that love upon which the soul lives and 
dotes. . . . 

Oftice op Phovost Marshal, 
Columbia, August 21, 1863 

The citizens are flocking here in great numbers 
daily, bringing their property — all that is movable. 
The "Rebs" cross every night in small numbers, and 



102 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

plunder and rob the people. I do not know why our 
cavalry is not sent out and these outlaws driven across 
the river. I understand it is to be done. This can 
be done only by cavalry and, of course, the infantry 
will remain at this point. I pity the people of Chn- 
ton and Russell counties. They have been driven 
from their homes, and their wives and children have 
been forced to take shelter in the caves and fastnesses 
of their mountains. Men have come to me here, 
bringing with them what little property they could 
carry, and have shed tears like girls when they were 
relating the story of their wrongs, and remembered 
the dear ones they left behind. . . . Here the father 
sleeps with his rifle under his pillow; the mother 
drops a bitter tear over the cradle of her child as she 
presses upon its untaught lips the token of a mother's 
love, and all retire to sleep — perhaps the sleep of 
death. This agony of suspense is terrible. How 
happy I shall be when the G. A. C. with its brave 
thousands shall speak with the cannon and sword to 
the oppressed of that land, and the father can once 
more embrace wife and child under the starry flag of 
our rescued country. That time is not far distant. 
Heaven speed it ! 

We get the news every day by telegraph. It looks 
encouraging just now. The reverse of Hooker is 
nothing. We injured the "Rebs" more than they 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 103 
injured us/ The war will end in 1864 — you see if 
I am not right. Three places are to be taken, three 
battles are to be fought, and the old flag will be 
reinstated throughout our broad domain. Hooker, 
Rosecrans, and Grant must triumph, and the rotten 
Confederacy fall. The day's report brings us the 
news that Grant has taken Jackson, Mississippi, and 
burned it. If this be true, the railroads are cut off, 
and Vicksburg and Port Hudson must fall. Indeed 
it is rumored that Vicksburg is evacuated. I think it 
more than probable. Tomorrow we shall hear some- 
thing more. I hope its confirmation. . . . 

It was at Blue Springs, Tennessee, that Captain 
Burrows fought his last battle in company with the 
Seventeenth Michigan.^ After the months spent in 

1 The victory cost the Confederates the life of Stonewall Jackson, 
who was shot through mistake by his own pickets as he returned from 
a reconnaissance. 

2 The history of the Seventeenth Michigan from this point should 
be recorded: After General Longstreet marched into Eastern Tennes- 
see, the Seventeenth followed him and occupied several positions, march- 
ing continuously, destitute of supplies, and depending whoUy for their 
scanty rations upon the coimtry through which they passed. They 
suffered much also from the sleet and snow, against which their thread- 
bare uniforms offered little protection. On March 22, 1864, the regi- 
ment began its return march of nearly two hundred miles across the 
Cumberland Mountains to Nicholasville, Kentucky, where it received 
orders to proceed to Annapolis, Maryland, to join the Army of the 
Potomac. On May 6, 1864, it was engaged in the desperate battle of 
the Wilderness, and in a daring charge upon the enemy's works, the 
Seventeenth was surrounded in the dense woods by the heavy lines 
of the Confederates and almost annihilated. As a result, the regiment 
practically lost its position in the brigade for want of numbers, and 



104 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

Eastern Tennessee, the regiment was sent to Lenoir 
Station to contest the advance of General Longstreet's 
troops. As the Union forces fell slowly back upon 
Knoxville, the Seventeenth acted as rear guard, and 
fought a severe engagement with Longstreet's force. 
In this letter to his wife Burrows gives a vivid descrip- 
tion of that portion of the battle in which he person- 
ally took part : 

Headquarters, First Division, Xixth Army Corps, 
Camp at Knoxville, Tennessee, 

Friday, October 16, 1863 

I have not written you since a week ago today. 
The fault is none of mine — circumstances control us 
all. When I wrote you last Friday I used a little 
deception — my old trick, you know; but you will 
pardon it when you remember the motive. You 
know I would not cause you one unnecessary sorrow. 
I told you in my last not to worry about me if you did 
not get a letter for a week or ten days, as the mails 
were liable to be cut off. I knew I could not write 
you again for some time, but I thought it not prudent 
then to give you the reason, as it would but pain you 
without assisting me. But to the facts. When I 
wrote you my last we were under marching orders, 

the survivors served with the army in various positions assigned them, 
taking part in the assault before Petersburg. After Lee's surrender, 
the Seventeenth embarked at City Point for Alexandria, Virginia, and 
])artieipated in the grand review at Washington on May -23, 1865. 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 105 
and the majority of our troops had already moved. 
For some time the Rebel force had been collecting in 
the extreme portion of Eastern Tennessee, with the 
intention of attacking Burnside and driving him from 
Knoxville and Tennessee. This army was already in 
motion, and had nearly reached Morristown, when 
Burnside ordered the army to meet the exultant foe. 
On Thursday, the 8th, the cars were loaded with 
troops, and rolling up toward Morristown. General 
Willcox was already there with 5,000 troops, and the 
Ninth Army Corps, together with General Shackel- 
ford's Cavalry, were on the move. Friday noon, 
October 9th, the last train of troops left Knoxville. 
On this train were Major-Generals Burnside and 
Parke and staffs, and Brigadier- Generals Ferrero, 
Potter, and Shackelford, and staffs — all in one car. 
At every station crowds of citizens gathered around 
the train and welcomed the Generals with deafening 
cheers. The starry flag of our country waved from 
almost every housetop, and our trip seemed more like 
a pleasure ride than a march to a battlefield. The 
loyalty of these much-abused American citizens is 
growing stronger and stronger every day, and the 
people are flocking to their country's standard by 
thousands. East Tennessee is delivered from the 
tyrant's rule, and the loved flag of the Repubhc kisses 
the mountain breeze. On Friday, the cars ran 



io6 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

heyond Morristown to a place called Bull's Gap, 
where we disembarked about nine o'clock at night. 
Above this point the Rebels held the railroad. After 
a good night's rest we continued our march, starting 
Saturday morning at six o'clock. The cavalry in the 
morning had engaged the enemy, who had taken up a 
strong position at a place called Blue Springs. They 
were unable to advance. We reached the scene of 
action at ten o'clock. From that time until three in 
the afternoon Colonel Carter was endeavoring to find 
out the position of the enemy, and the crack of 
musketry and the thunder of artillery rolled along 
the hill. Still, no headway was made. At three 
o'clock p. M., General Ferrero asked General Burn- 
side to allow him to attack the enemy. It was at once 
granted. The First Division of the Ninth Army 
Corps was immediately set in motion. The line of 
battle was formed, the cannon were planted, and all 
things ready for the coming engagement. Soon the 
ball opened. The mountain shook with the thunder 
of our guns, the stretchers were bearing off the 
wounded, and all the terrors of the battle were upon 
us. Our Division alone drove the enemy for more 
than a mile, and would have captured his guns had 
not darkness overtaken us. When the firing ceased 
we were under the very muzzles of their guns. But 
night stopped the struggle, and the victory was ours. 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 107 

General Ferrero is a perfect Napoleon. We all were 
in the thickest of the fight, and never since the battle 
of South Mountain have I been where shot and shell 
flew thicker. The General is perfectly reckless of 
danger — courting it as if it were a thing to be loved. 
Just at night I rode back to order up a battery, and as 
I was passing through the ranks of the Michigan 
Twentieth a cannon ball struck in the regiment, 
wounding three and killing one. As I rode up a road 
a shell burst over my head, the fragments flying all 
around me, and while we were driving the enemy a 
shell burst so near me that I felt the motion of the air, 
and saw the flash of light. The action was terrific for 
the time being, but, as fortune would have it, I 
escaped without a scratch. This is my sixth engage- 
ment. Haven't I been fortunate? Heaven be 
thanked ! We lost in this action about sixty in killed 
and wounded. The killed and wounded of the 
enemy outnumbered our own. 

That night we slept without tents with the cloud- 
less canopy of Heaven for our covering, and dreamed 
of our homes and loved ones far away. Sabbath 
morning, at daylight, our skirmishers advanced, but 
soon ascertained that the enemy had flown. Imme- 
diately the army was in motion. The foaming 
cavalry dashed by, the artillery rolled rapidly onward, 
and the soldiers, eager to capture the foe, pressed 



io8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAJM [1863 

forward with unbounded eagerness. We were sure 
of capturing the enemy. Colonel Foster had been 
sent to head off their retreat, and had succeeded in 
gaining their rear. Escape was impossible. But 
just as we were attacking their rear Foster became 
frightened (or else he is treacherous) , skulked behind 
a mountain, and let the enemy escape. It was a cry- 
ing shame ! The cavalry pursued them, the infantry 
encamped. The contest was over. Had Foster done 
his duty we should have captured 5,000 prisoners, 
but it is just our luck! Treachery and imbecility 
have almost ruined us, but our cavalry will pursue the 
enemy and capture many prisoners, and drive the last 
armed traitor from the borders of Tennessee. 

Monday we rested. Tuesday morning we com- 
menced our march back to Knoxville. The troops 
went on the cars. The train with the artillery took 
the road and went with them, they being placed under 
my command. Tuesday night we encamped at Blue 
Springs, the battlefield. Wednesday night encamped 
at Panther Springs, and last night reached our old 
quarters here in Knoxville, all safe and sound and 
well. 

So you have a history of this brief campaign. 
Now you are glad, I know, that I did not tell you of 
this before it happened, as you would have worried 
continually. Pardon the deception. . . . 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 109 

Although Captain Burrows escaped "without a 
scratch," this last conflict with the enemy proved con- 
clusively that he was physically unfit for further 
active service. More than this, the campaign for 
Lincoln's second election was in sight, and his friends 
in the army and at home persuaded him that he could 
contribute more to the cause to which he had devoted 
himself with his voice than by continuing his service 
in the field. So he writes home : 

October 16, 1863 

I expect to start for Unionville Tuesday or Wednes- 
day. You will see me at the depot some time week 
after next. I will write you as soon as my resigna- 
tion is accepted, and tell you when I start. It will 
take me a week to go home. I will soon be with you. 
Tell little Meda Papa is coming home. . . . 

While "Papa is coming home" let us piece to- 
gether the story of the pain and the heartache and the 
anxiety which had been slowly consuming the patient 
Jennie, while her husband was performing his part 
in the great struggle to preserve the Union and to 
defend the Home. As she so frankly says, there is 
"nothing to write about." Nothing, except of her- 
self and of the little daughter in which the life of both 
was centered! 

"People tell me that I have changed somewhat," 



1 1 o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [ 1 863 

she writes with unconscious pathos, "and that I look 
a few years older than when you went away, and yet I 
think I am stronger and can endure more than I used 
to. Ma tells me I will look so worn and used up gen- 
erally that you will be ashamed of me when you come 
home. But I think I shall succeed in preserving my 
identity. You will at least find the same heart. . . . 
I presume you have noticed that I do not write as long 
letters lately; it is because it makes my side ache." 

Read these disconnected extracts from the letters 
which contained "nothing," and in them read the 
story of thousands of women of these paralyzing 
years. Read in them the patient loyalty, the inspir- 
ing confidence, the unwavering devotion, which gave 
to the husbands and the sons the power to preserve 
the Union : 

"You don't know how I miss you, Caesar. The 
longer you are gone the more utter my loneliness is. 
I miss your rich, strong, sympathetic nature. My 
very being has become identified with you. But you 
are in the way of duty, and I must be content. Our 
suffering country needs just such brave, noble spirits 
to defend her injured rights, although my life (and 
thousands of others) be drained of every joy. . . ." 

"In your last letter you seem discouraged on ac- 
count of the inactivity of the army. You must be 
patriotic indeed if you can urge an advance under the 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 111 

present state of weather and roads. ... I don't 
think I shall ever murmur or complain again, for 
even when I am sick I am still more comfortable than 
you. . . ." 

"You want me to give you the exact condition of 
my own health. Well, I have occasional sick spells 
(they usually occur after battles or periods of more 
than ordinary concern) , but on the whole my health is 
very good. . . . For a week past I have been subject 
to a sort of miserable indifference. I think it was the 
reaction consequent upon a state of intense excite- 
ment and solicitude on your account. 

"How did you spend your Christmas yesterday? 
Meda hung up her stocking and got it full. Ma put 
in a new red apron, and Nettie put in candy and 
raisins, and the most perfect little gilt china pitcher 
you ever saw. She was perfectly carried away with 
it. When she first saw it she said, 'Now I wish I 
could show this to Papa.' In the morning I heard 
some one talking in the dining-room. I looked in 
and there stood Meda, up in a chair before your like- 
ness, throwing kisses at you and saying, 'I wish you 
a Merry Christmas, Papa dear.' . . . 

"The old year, so heavily laden with great events, 
has gone down into the tomb of the past. It was a 
mighty swell upon the sea of time, but it is now 
broken upon the shore. The dark account of the 



112 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

past twelve months will form an important feature in 
our historic record. The twilight which attended the 
birth of the old year has deepened into black dark- 
ness. Aside from our National calamities and sad 
disasters and reverses to our armies, there are unwrit- 
ten volumes of misery and anguish, known only to 
the heart of the stricken sufferer. Think of the 
ruined households and broken home circles where joy 
and gladness reigned but one short year ago. . . . 

"May the New Year be unlike the old. May she 
teem with victories of right over wrong, freedom over 
slavery; may liberal, just, and democratic views (no 
reference to modern Democracy ! ) triumph over mer- 
cenary and despotic sentiment. Heaven grant that 
the coming year may not chronicle the date of a 
ruined Nation ! . . . You ask me if I do not love to 
think of our future home. Oh ! Caesar, if it were not 
for thoughts of the future I could not endure the 
present. ... I do not wish to see our country suffer 
any further dishonor, but if anything like an honor- 
able compromise can be effected I should be in favor 
of it. . . ." 

Writing to him while he is still at Seminary Hos- 
pital she says: "Don't get well too fast for I am 
afraid you will have to go back to the regiment. I 
know you will think this is not very honorable advice, 
but I cannot help it. . . ." 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 113 

"My eyes feel unusually bad this evening. Can 
you guess what ails them? . . . There has been an 
unusual amount of rascality going on lately. Every 
paper has its list of robberies, — soldiers especially 
are victims; so, my dear, you must be on your guard 
when coming home." 

"Caesar, the State of Ohio has gone Democratic, — 
isn't it a burning shame? ... Oh! my Caesar, can 
it be that you must engage in another murderous con- 
flict. ... I have adopted the plan of living only 
one day at a time, and find that quite as much as I 
am adequate to." 

"I have packed in the valise one can of cherries, 
one of raspberries, some dried peaches, a few dried 
cherries, some dried halibut (don't know how to 
spell it) , a little speck of maple sugar, a httle piece of 
cheese, some dried corn, two pair of woollen socks, 
and a bottle of whiskey. Vess * told me to send it, 
and I need not caution you to use it judiciously." 

"You must be very careful what you say against 
General McClellan. I am afraid you will say more 
than will be prudent. You know my motive is good 
in warning you." 

"I did not sleep much last night, for it was bitter 
cold. I cannot rest when I know that you must be 
suffering. . . . You do not know how worried Meda 

1 Sylvester Solomon Burrows. 



114 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1863 

is for you. She seems to perfectly realize your con- 
dition. Last night, after we got to bed, she com- 
menced laughing very heartily. I asked her what 
pleased her, and she said, 'I was thinking how glad 
we would be if my dear Papa would come right into 
our room now.' I thought so too. ... I could not 
live if I thought I never should see you again. . . ." 
The prayers availed, and the reunion became a 
reality. The "little home," so many times referred 
to, toward which they both had planned, and for 
which they had toiled and sacrificed, was purchased 
in Kalamazoo in November, 1863. But even the 
joy of realization was not enough to give back to the 
frail body what the constant strain had taken from it, 
and in August of the following year Jennie passed 
away to that rich reward which belongs to those who 
unhesitatingly give of themselves to those they love : 

" 'Mid the flower-wreathed tombs I stand. 
Bearing lilies in my hand. 
Comrades! in what soldier grave 
Sleeps the bravest of the brave?} 

''One low grave, the trees beneath. 
Bears no garland, wears no wreath. 
Yet no heart more high and warm 
Ever dared the battle-storm. 



1864] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 115 

^'Turning from my comrades^ eyes. 
Kneeling where a woman lies, 
I strew lilies on the grave 
Of the bravest of the brave/' ^ 

1 Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 



A 



CHAPTER IV 
Personal Reconstruction. 1864-1872 
S Burrows relates in the last chapter, he had 



taken part in six actual engagements, — South 
Mountain, Maryland, September 14, 1862; Antie- 
tam, Maryland, September 17, 1862; Fredericks- 
burg, Virginia, December 13, 1862; the siege of 
Vicksburg, June 17 to July 4, 1863; Jackson, Missis- 
sippi, July 11, 1863; and Blue Springs, Tennessee, 
October 10, 1863. Besides this, he took part in the 
East Tennessee Campaign from August 16 to October 
19, 1863, the date of his honorable discharge on 
resignation. 

The return home meant a complete readjustment. 
During the period of his service in the army the coun- 
try itself had undergone a drastic reorganization, and 
the conditions in Kalamazoo were to be learned anew. 
Friends and comrades were dead or still at the front, 
the results of the terrible strain upon the people were 
everywhere apparent, his duties to his family, his 
associates, and himself were complicated and uncer- 
tain, — yet he plunged into the work as he saw it to 
116 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 117 

be done. In helping to solve the problem of the 
community he succeeded in solving his own. 

The return home served to change his attitude 
toward the President from that of merely partisan 
support to an understanding appreciation of the 
obstacles against which Lincoln had contended and 
the difficulties he still had to surmount. The view- 
point of the citizen at home was far different from 
that of the soldier at the front. To have misjudged 
any man meant to Burrows immediate acknowledg- 
ment and restitution; to have misjudged Lincoln 
meant a life's devotion when the scales once fell from 
his eyes. Into the Presidential canvass Burrows 
threw his whole soul, and his expressions were so sin- 
cere and heartfelt that they could not fail to be effec- 
tive. 

The political situation during the early days of 
Lincoln's second campaign was full of anxiety and 
contained many unestimable factors. Grant's des- 
perate lighting in Virginia kept the North depressed 
and apprehensive, for his movement upon Petersburg 
had as yet produced no decisive results.^ Sherman's 
campaign in Georgia at that time gave no promise 
that its outcome was to be so brilliant, and the raids 

1 ''Grant ordered a general attack on Petersburg this morning at 
daybreak. Everything was behind. Did not begin till an hour after 
daylight. Hancock did not get over till after daylight, and the cavalry 
not at all. Burnside exploded his mine imder the enemy's works, and 



ii8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

made by the Rebels into Maryland and Pennsylvania 
gave weight to the contention of the Democrats that 
the war was a failure. 

McClellan was nominated by the Democrats at 
Chicago on August 29, 1864, only a little more than 
two months before the election. Vallandigham 
wrote into the platform the plank upon which the 
Peace advocates based their hopes: "After four 
years of failure to restore the Union by the experi- 
ment of war, during which . . . the Constitution 
itself has been disregarded in every part," public wel- 
fare demands "that immediate efforts be made for a 
cessation of hostilities." Chase had resigned his 
portfolio in Lincoln's Cabinet, and a certain disinte- 
gration appeared to be in progress even among the 
Administration forces. "It seems as if there were 
appearing in the Republican Party the elements of 
disorganization which destroyed the Whigs," wrote 
John Hay on August 29, 1864, to his friend Nicolay. 
"If the dumb cattle are not worthy of another term of 
Lincoln, then let the will of God be done, and the 
murrain of McClellan fall on them." 

As the campaign progressed. Fate took a hand in 
the canvass, and Lincoln's chances of reelection were 

our men marched up to the crest without opposition, and then halted. 
What in the name of halting and delays they are doing now I do not 
know. I am disgusted !" [ Unpublished letter from General B, F, Butler 
to Mrs. Butler, 30 July, 1864.1 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 119 
vastly improved. Farragut won the victory of Mo- 
bile Bay, Sherman forced Hood to evacuate Atlanta, 
and the success of the Union arms began to seem 
assured. "Every shell from Sheridan's guns knocks 
a plank from the Chicago platform," cried Burrows 
in one of his impassioned campaign speeches. "Go 
to the gallant Farragut, who, lashed to the mast amid 
a storm of leaden hail, went on to victory, and ask 
him if the war is a failure ; go to Sherman, who stead- 
ily advanced the old flag until he planted it on the 
principal stronghold in Georgia, and ask him if the 
war is a failure; go to Grant, who is cutting every 
artery of the Rebellion, and ask if the war is a failure ; 
go to the gallant Sheridan, whose gleaming bayonets 
sent the Rebel hordes like a whirlwind up the Valley, 
and ask him if the war is a failure. Go ask your 
'deluded brother' Early, whose army was driven in 
squads to the mountains, if the war is a failure. . . . 
The great battle of the Repubhc is to be fought at the 
ballot-box. It is for us to say whether the war is to 
go on, or whether we shall bring back that gallant 
army with their cheeks mantled with the blush of 
shame. Let us send to the army a victory that it 
can carry to the enemy on the point of the bayonet." 
An interesting pen-picture of the youthful orator 
in this campaign is given us by the Very Reverend 
Father O'Brien of Kalamazoo : 



120 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

"We had heard much of young Burrows as a public 
speaker," he relates, "and had followed his achieve- 
ments in the army during the Civil War; but our 
first ^ meeting was in Monroe, my old home, in the 
Fall of 1864. It was during President Lincoln's 
second campaign that he was announced as the lead- 
ing speaker at one of the old-fashioned mass meet- 
ings. Monroe County had always been Democratic. 
Burrows' fame as a vote-maker preceded him, and the 
Democratic Party, in order to offset the affair, deter- 
mined to have the greatest meeting of the year on the 
same day. Having control of the county, they man- 
aged to secure the public square adjoining the court- 
house, where all such meetings were held. There 
came near being a clash. The Republicans had 
come from every quarter of the county. They assem- 
bled in the square adjoining the old Episcopal 
church, where the hotel now stands, which is diag- 
onally across from the court-house square. Bands 
attempted to drown the speakers alternately. 

"Word came that Burrows' train was delayed. 
The Democrats apparently seemed to have won the 
day, and a lot of disheartened members of the new 
Party awaited the arrival of the train. About half 

1 Father O'Brien followed Burrows' career from this point for many- 
years with deep personal interest and friendship, and did much to win 
Catholic support for him in his political campaigns. 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 121 

past four it backed down the track from Petersburgh, 
the Lake Shore Railroad running through the center 
of the city. Courage came to the Repubhcans with 
the sight of the train, and the loiterers became very 
active. The distinguished speaker disembarked, and 
was escorted amid cheers to the steps of the church. 
Then the battle began. The Democratic Party at- 
tempted to keep the crowd and drown the speaker's 
voice, but it was no use. That magnificent voice of 
those days resounded above the din of cheers and the 
noise of the band, and it was not long before the 
Democratic speaker found himself surrounded by 
scarcely a dozen. The whole crowd had flocked over 
to hear the brilliant young orator. 

"It was a very warm afternoon. In the midst of 
his speech. Burrows took off his coat, remarking that 
the 'zeal of the cause had so enthused him that he 
desired to be unhampered in his onslaught of the 
Democrats, as he intended to make it as hot as eternal 
perdition for all the enemies of Lincoln.' This was 
a 'stunt' unknown in those days in that section, and 
if he ever scored a success it was at that time. The 
crowd went wild with enthusiasm, and it was some 
moments before he could continue. 'He came, he 
spoke, he conquered.' No man ever scored a greater 
victory. Well do we remember the old farmers' 
antics of joy, tossing up their hats and jumping about 



122 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

the ground as he finished his discourse. It was with 
great difficuhy that he succeeded in getting back to 
the car. He had to 'shake' with every one, and al- 
though the whistle kept tooting and the bell a-ring- 
ing, yet they desired to hold him. Finally he 
boarded the rear platform of the coach, and was 
forced to make another five-minute speech. It was 
with difficulty that the train got through the mass of 
humanity that hung around that car. Burrows be- 
came our idol from that day, and has been such ever 
since." 

Lincoln was reelected, and delivered his second 
inaugural on March 4, 1865. Only a Httle more 
than a month later Lincoln lay dead, and the country 
sobbed over his bier. When the people of Kala- 
mazoo, in common with the sorrowing multitudes 
throughout the Nation, wished to make public demon- 
stration of their grief, it was to Burrows — veteran sol- 
dier and seasoned patriot at the age of twenty-eight ! 
— that they turned for spokesman. These extracts 
are given not only as a link in the National story 
which runs through these pages, but also as an early 
example of the man's oratorical powers. In this 
Eulogy, delivered on June l, 1865, Burrows says in 
part: 

"The fourteenth day of April, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-five, is a day ever to be remembered, not 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 123 

only in the history of our own country but in the 
annals of the whole civilized world. It will stand 
firm and erect amid the leaning ruins of time, and 
fling its gloomy shadow far down the untrodden path- 
way of the ages. It was a day of National exultation. 
The morning sun was hailed with the thundering of 
cannon, the waving of banners, and the echoing and 
re-echoing shouts of rejoicing millions. A new-born 
halo of light blazed around our starlit flag, beneath 
which illumination every loyal American citizen from 
ocean to ocean, from lake to gulf, was walking in the 
consciousness of a just pride. The trained armies of 
the Rebellion, with their acknowledged Chieftain, 
which for more than four years had resisted the 
authority of the Government and defied its power, 
were reeling backward, broken and overthrown, and 
kneeling for mercy at our feet. Their defiant cities, 
with their almost impregnable fortified capital, re- 
sounded with the tread of our conquering legions and 
the melody of our National airs. Maid and matron, 
with light heart and joyous song, were weaving gar- 
lands of triumph to pave the pathway of our return- 
ing heroes. The representative heads of this foul 
conspiracy were flying in ignominious haste over the 
ruins of their desolate homes, and from beneath the 
tottering pillars of the Confederacy. Over the land 
and over the sea, up from the triumphant army and 



124 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

navy, came the glad shout of victory, which waiting 
milHons caught and echoed back from the hills of 
New England to the sea-girt shores of the distant 
West. The National ensign, that emblem of our 
pride and prowess, which four years before went down 
over shattered Sumter amid the bowlings of treason, 
was again floating in triumph above the altar where it 
first fell. A Nation rose up to give it greeting. 
Redeemed and disenthralled humanity with tears of 
gratitude gazed upon its stars of hope. The heavy 
clouds of war were breaking away upon the National 
horizon, and the sunlight of returning peace was play- 
ing at the portals of the RepubUc. 

"Night closed upon this great day of National 
jubilee. A sense of public and personal security per- 
vaded every breast within our borders; but ere the 
last sounds of National rejoicing had died away upon 
our ears, while the pulse was yet throbbing with a 
high enthusiasm, the wild cry of assassination rang 
upon the startled air, and Abraham Lincoln, whose 
name was upon every tongue, lay with gaping wounds 
bleeding and dying in the National capital. At the 
very moment when treason was sinking to its unholy 
tomb — when we thought it beyond even the attempt 
at resistance, — in its very death agony, — it lifted its 
blood-clotted hand, and, reaching backward beyond 
the wall of bayonets that hemmed it in, struck down 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 125 

the Nation's idol, and fell back to its grave hissing, 
'The South is avenged!' The blow was given not for 
victory, or in the hope of National triumph, but in the 
fell spirit of a merciless revenge, — the fit culminating 
act of rebellious, bloody tragedy. 

"A sob of National sorrow went moaning over the 
land. The sad intelligence was borne on the wings 
of lightning to every home and every heart. The 
stoutest were overwhelmed and appalled. Men for- 
got their accustomed duties. We tremblingly took 
each other by the hand, and with tearful eye, pallid 
cheek, and quivering lip, attempted the story of our 
grief, but turned away — silent, speechless, mute. 
The drapery of sorrow shrouded every home. The 
National ensign hung low, burdened with the symbol 
of its grief. Credulity staggered at the thought of 
such a bloody deed. We would not believe that he 
who had guided us with such fidelity through these 
dark days, that he in whom the affections of the Amer- 
ican people were centered, who was just reaching to 
grasp the goal for which he had struggled, had 
fallen. . . . 

"It is an estabhshed fact of history that the 
fearful contest in which we have been engaged, and 
from which we are just emerging, has been a struggle 
between constitutional liberty and constitutional 
tyranny. Between freedom and oppression. Upon 



126 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

the one hand has been arrayed the stalwart milhons 
of the free North, whose shield was the Constitution, 
whose helmet was the flag of our fathers, and whose 
battle cry was 'Liberty and Union.' Upon the other 
hand were those who had supplanted that Constitu- 
tion and that flag, and would erect the ill-shaped 
fabric of an aristocratic government upon their sacred 
ruins. From the foundation of the Government 
there has been an uninterrupted contest between free- 
dom and slavery, between right and wrong. All the 
power of legislative wisdom has been exhausted to 
chain these opposing elements. But they were such 
implacable foes, so diametrically opposed that they 
cannot be controlled, they cannot breathe the same 
free air, they cannot sleep under the shadow of the 
same star-lit flag. When Liberty raised its sacred 
voice in the council chambers of the Nation, Slavery's 
bludgeon silenced it. When Freedom flung her 
mantle around an infant Territory, the germ of sleep- 
ing empire, the vulture Slavery shrieked, hawked at 
her garments, and dabbled them with blood. Such 
was the fearful contest until it culminated in open 
civil war. No sooner had Abraham Lincoln assumed 
the reins of Government than he was beset by two 
factions who urged upon him the adoption of en- 
tirely different policies. The one, composed of those 
who regarded the law of slavery as paramount to the 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 127 

Constitution, and the rights of slavery as the most 
sacred of all the rights which are guaranteed by that 
instrument, would denounce Mr. Lincoln if he inter- 
fered with slavery in any way, for any purpose, or at 
any time. The other, composed of those who re- 
garded the abolition of slavery as the one great thing 
to be accomplished whatever else might be lost, would 
denounce him with equal bitterness that he did not 
sweep it out of existence the moment Fort Sumter was 
attacked. How firmly he stood amid these opposing 
factions, yielding to neither. And how history will 
applaud him for it. To have adopted the policy of 
the former would have insured the success of the 
Rebellion. To have chosen the course marked out 
by the latter would have been National suicide. . . . 
"After almost two years of terrible war — two years 
of defeat and disaster — the prejudice of the American 
people was in a great measure overthrown, and we 
became convinced that the Rebellion could not be 
subdued while we held up its hands with the support 
of its four millions of serfs. That slavery or free- 
dom must die. How unhesitatingly and boldly 
Abraham Lincoln chose his course . . . and having 
determined upon it, 'he moved forward without fear, 
and with a manly heart.' On the 22d of September, 
1862, Abraham Lincoln, by proclamation, declared, 
'That on the first day of January, in the year of our 



128 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any 
State, or designated part of a State, the people 
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever 
free.' It was the first breathings of liberty that had 
ever rung in the ear of our downtrodden millions. 
For three-quarters of a century they had gazed upon 
our flag, the symbol of freedom to all but to them. 
It hung over them like the arching of a dungeon, — 
its broad stripes were bands of iron, its stars were bolts 
of steel. Now, for the first time, it meant liberty to 
them. The issuing of this proclamation created the 
intensest excitement throughout our own country, and 
engaged the attention of the whole civilized world. 
The oppressed everywhere clapped their manacled 
hands, while tyrants trembled in their kingly garbs. 
The National sky hung with an unwonted blackness. 
The surges of opposition rolled mountain high and 
thundered against the floundering Ship of State. 
Threatened mutiny raised its bloody hand until even 
the friends of the measure were terrified, and doubted 
whether the President would have the courage to 
redeem his pledge. How little they knew of the spirit 
of our Executive!" 

Burrows found his legal practice largely increased 
by the conditions of the times. He felt the responsi- 
bility still of continuing his services in clinching the 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 129 

victory practically won, but now by logic rather than 
by the sword. In 1864 he was elected to his first 
public office, that of Circuit Court Commissioner of 
Kalamazoo County. He became Prosecuting Attor- 
ney of the same county in 1866, and was reelected in 
1868, but resigned before his second term was com- 
pleted. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the 
office of United States District Attorney for the West- 
ern District of Michigan, and in his thirtieth year he 
was appointed Supervisor of Internal Revenue for 
Michigan and Wisconsin, but declined that office. 

In 1867 ^6 made his first trip to England and to 
the Continent, and on his return formed a law part- 
nership with Henry F. Severens, who later became 
United States District Judge for the Western District 
of Michigan. The firm did a leading business in the 
courts of Southwest Michigan. Burrows excelled as 
an advocate, and was particularly strong in conduct- 
ing the cross-examination of witnesses, while Severens 
was an able practitioner, deeply versed in legal prin- 
ciples, and an able counsellor. The partnership 
continued until Burrows was elected to Congress in 
1872. 

The European trip marks the break between Bur- 
rows' local and National public life. Only once, up 
to this time, had he delivered speeches outside of 
Michigan, but with the Grant and Colfax campaign 



130 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

his horizon broadened, and his outlook became ex- 
tended far beyond his own State. 

With his mind so constantly centered upon Na- 
tional affairs, it was but natural that Burrows should 
early turn his face in the direction of Washington. 
The beginning of his political career, coming as it did 
immediately after the close of the war, gave him 
ample opportunity to make the most of his undoubted 
power of speech. It was a period when men were 
still controlled by the influences and effects of the 
long struggle, and Burrows, fresh from the battlefield, 
was able to feed their imagination with impassioned 
words which today sound overdrawn and oratorical, 
but which to his enthusiastic campaign audiences 
seemed inspired. 

There is no question that even at this early stage 
of his career Burrows realized the value of his elo- 
quence, and his power to sway men's judgment and 
to command their following. The rich wheat-grow- 
ers in his immediate vicinity listened to his fervid 
words with approval, and saw in him a future states- 
man who could, at no distant date, represent their 
interests with satisfaction and with credit to his State. 
If this youthful orator could so affect their own emo- 
tions it was a self-evident proposition that his ef- 
fect upon others, and in their behalf, would be identi- 
cal. 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 131 

The first testing out of Burrows' political wings 
came in 1870, in his thirty- third year, when he be- 
came a leading candidate for the Forty-second Con- 
gress, running against the seasoned veteran. General 
William L. Stoughton, who stood for reelection. 
Though busy with his law practice. Burrows had 
always taken an active part in local politics. It was 
his readiness to assist in the campaigns, and his grow- 
ing reputation as an orator, that contributed to the 
crystallization of public sentiment in favor of his 
nomination as a candidate for Congress. 

General Stoughton held Burrows' candidacy 
lightly at the beginning, but as the campaign pro- 
ceeded he found him a somewhat dangerous competi- 
tor, and only succeeded in holding his seat after a 
valiant and creditable struggle. The Fourth Con- 
gressional District of Michigan has always been ac- 
counted one of the best and most intelligent in the 
country, and the voters were quick to appreciate the 
fervid imagination and the passionate enthusiasm 
which controlled Burrows from the beginning in his 
devotion to Republican principles. 

The nature of the contest against Stoughton was 
such that although defeated the younger man's popu- 
larity was greatly increased. A letter published by 
Burrows during this campaign is an early example of 
his methods under fire: 



132 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

Kalamazoo, July SO, 1870 

In view of the fact that my name is mentioned in 
connection with Representative in Congress from this 
District, and that a charge is made by one R. C. Nash 
against our present Representative that he received 
$435 compensation for securing a place in the Gov- 
ernment printing office for one Robinson, I desire to 
state, in justice to General Stoughton, that I am satis- 
fied not only that the man Nash is utterly unworthy 
of belief, but that the charge is unwarranted from the 
evidence he produces. I make this statement in fair- 
ness to General Stoughton — being unwilling that my 
personal advancement should be promoted by the 
influence of any such false charge. . . . 

His real opportunity came two years later, when 
he met his principal opponent, ex-lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Charles S. May, in joint debate, and was suc- 
cessful in a contest over a man who, until Burrows 
became his rival, had been considered the greatest 
orator in that vicinity. May had done much for his 
Party, and was no less eager for Congressional honors 
than his young competitor, who now challenged him 
as the coming Representative of the District. After 
the longest convention contest on record, Burrows was 
nominated for the Forty-third Congress on the one 
hundred and fifty-second ballot, one hundred and 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 133 

fifty-one ballots being taken without a single change 
in the votes. 

His first campaign for himself came with the cam- 
paign of Grant for his second Presidential term. It 
was a period filled with vital interest and, from a 
political standpoint, definite discontent. The Re- 
publican predominance, which came with the success- 
ful outcome of the Civil War, while not yet endan- 
gered, had been weakened during Grant's first term 
as President by the alienation of influential men 
whose support it had previously commanded. The 
North by this time had come to reaHze that the policy 
of Thorough,^ put forcibly into effect throughout the 
South during the reconstruction period by Thaddeus 
Stevens and his radicals, was not as beneficent or as 
unselfish as had been claimed, and that the South had 
a real right to its implacable enmity toward the Party 
which had administered affairs after the war. On 
the other hand, it was only too obvious that the con- 
ditions engendered by the misrule of the white men, 
by the arrogance of the carpet-baggers, and by the 
insolence of the negroes in the enjoyment of their 
new-found liberty, were such as still to demand firm 
and drastic handhng if order was to be brought out of 

1 This word was first applied to the policy of Strafford and Laud, 
during the reign of Charles I, in England, of carrying through ("thor- 
ough") the administration of public affairs without regard to obstacles. 



134 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

chaos. The conditions were to be deplored, it was 
true, and they were such as might easily have been 
avoided, but that they existed no one could dispute. 
The South in its desperation was meeting injustice 
with injustice, crime with crime, and horror with 
horror. 

In 1870, an Act passed Congress placing Southern 
elections and the registration of voters in the South- 
ern States under the virtual control of Federal super- 
visors and marshals, who were given power to protect 
voters in exercising their right of suffrage, and whose 
complaints were to be settled by the Circuit Courts of 
the United States instead of by the State Courts. 
The following year this Act was made stronger by 
extending to these Federal supervisors and marshals 
the power to protect every privilege which had been 
conferred upon the negro. Another Act was passed 
in this same session of the Forty-second Congress 
aimed at the crushing of the Ku-Klux Klan, treating 
this and other secret societies of the South as conspira- 
tors against the Government of the United States, and 
imposing penalties of heavy fines and imprisonment. 
President Grant was authorized to suspend the writ 
of habeas corpus "during the continuance of such 
rebellion against the United States" whenever and 
wherever it seemed necessary to accomplish the pur- 
pose of the Act, and the Federal Courts were empow- 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 135 

ered to exclude from juries all persons suspected 
of sympathizing with the members of these socie- 
ties. 

President Grant used these powers vigorously, 
beginning in South CaroHna and extending through- 
out the South wherever the secret societies were to be 
found, and while these drastic measures succeeded in 
partially destroying the organized attempt to annul 
the rights of the negroes, it placed the people of the 
South at bay. Had President Grant been strong 
enough to stand out against politicians in selecting 
fit men for minor offices, and to ensure to them per- 
manency of tenure, there would have been hope 
of success; but throughout his Administrations he 
showed himself incapable of judging men, and the 
country at large viewed with alarm the conditions as 
they existed. 

As a result of all this there arose a definite opposi- 
tion on the part of thoughtful men in the Republican 
Party to the Administration at Washington, but the 
first definite organization came from Missouri, where, 
in 1870, the so-called Liberal-Republican party was 
born, including such men as Carl Schurz, David A. 
Wells, Edward Atkinson, William Cullen Bryant, J. 
D. Cox, David Davis, Lyman Trumbull, Horace 
Greeley, Charles Francis Adams, ex-Governor Curtin 
of Pennsylvania, and ex-Governor Fenton of New 



136 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

York. Less affected than the Democrats, but still 
sympathetic with the Southern situation, they further 
resented Grant's disregard for propriety and good 
taste, which they felt was destroying the dignity of 
the Presidency, and his inability to free himself from 
the control of unworthy advisers. They resented his 
weakness in the matter of Civil Service Reform and 
of tariff reduction, and looked upon his new policy of 
Force in the South as an unwarranted revival of 
issues which, for the good of the country as a whole, 
should be forgotten as speedily as possible. 

The National Convention called by the Missouri 
Liberals met in Cincinnati on May 1, 1872, and amid 
high enthusiasm proceeded to nominate candidates 
for the National election. It was confidently ex- 
pected that the selection of the Convention for the 
Presidency would be Charles Francis Adams, David 
Davis, or Lyman Trumbull, but when, on the sixth 
ballot, Horace Greeley was nominated, it became evi- 
dent that their efforts had seriously miscarried. 
They had held no hope of electing a President at this 
first essay of their power, but they did expect to offer 
to the country a candidate of sagacity and political 
strength, and to take a definite step forward in forc- 
ing the issues of the war to be dropped. Greeley, 
however, was the last man to fit into this description. 
Hosts of Liberal-Republicans, who had been most 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 137 

enthusiastic in the formation of the new Party, 
promptly renounced their allegiance, and the North- 
ern Democrats found it impossible to support a can- 
didate who so imperfectly represented all in which 
they believed. Were it not, then, that the Demo- 
cratic Convention, which met at Baltimore in June, 
found itself obliged to accept the Liberal-Republican 
candidates and their platform, the contest would have 
become even more farcical than it was. 

This was the political situation into which Burrows 
found himself injected, now with a personal interest 
in addition to his devotion to the Party which he had 
always served. Into it he threw himself heart and 
soul. 

In the early part of the campaign Burrows formu- 
lated his political creed by which all his later actions 
must be judged. In one of his first speeches he de- 
clared: "I am proud to be numbered as one of the 
members of the great Republican Party, whose bril- 
liant achievements, whose grand victories, have not 
only made it immortal, but have given to the Nation 
a reputation and a name as wide and as broad as 
civilization itself; and let me assure you that nothing 
of any private character ; no personal grievance, how- 
ever great ; no personal matter, however it may wound 
my pride, — nothing shall ever drive me from the 
ranks of that grand old Party so long as it maintains 



138 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

the splendid principles which it now advocates and 
has sustained in years past." 

To Burrows, the Republican Party stood for the 
Union, and the Democratic Party for disunion. 
Grant was to him the saviour of his country, and to 
criticise him at all seemed to Burrows at that time 
evidence of the grossest ingratitude, and almost sacri- 
legious. What were minor errors of judgment, what 
were individual mistakes in act, compared with the 
great gift which Grant, the soldier, had given to his 
Nation! On the stump in this campaign (187 2) 
Burrows gave a resume of Republican achievements 
which are almost forgotten in considering the Repub- 
lican Party as a Party today, except by those familiar 
with its history. They are worth recalling: 

"Four years ago," Burrows said, "the great Repub- 
lican Party of this country marshaled its forces for 
victory. It then had control of this Government. 
Years before it had planted itself upon the principle 
that all men were and ought to be free, and that the 
Territories of our domain in the future should be 
sacred to freedom. We nominated Abraham Lincoln 
as our standard bearer, and although we met with 
terrible opposition at the hands of the Democratic 
Party, yet the American people were successful in 
that issue, and by their ballots placed this Govern- 
ment in the hands of the Republican Party. The 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 139 
Republican Party accepted the trust and entered upon 
the discharge of the duties devolving upon it. 

"When Abraham Lincoln reached the Capital of 
the Nation he found the Democratic Party in power; 
he found a Democratic President who said that there 
was no power in the Constitution to coerce a State. 
He found, instead of one government, two govern- 
ments; he found, instead of a united people, a divided 
Nation; he found seven States in open rebellion, 
organized against the common Government; the 
Union dissolved; our flag stricken down by those 
rebelhous States, and a National government organ- 
ized within our own borders. When the President 
delivered his inaugural address a rebel flag was float- 
ing in sight of the Capitol of this RepubHc, and a 
great Party said that we could not quell that Rebel- 
lion, that it was too powerful, and that we had no right 
under the Constitution to preserve ourselves. They 
said that the great Temple of Liberty was on fire and 
that we had no power to put it out. But we had a 
President and a Party which declared that it had the 
power to put it out, and, if it were necessary, to 
expend milhons of treasure and put it out in rivers 
of blood. 

"War came upon us, and for four years the Repub- 
Hcan Party carried on that war. They carried it on 
amidst severest trials, they carried it on against fear- 



140 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

ful odds ; for it is a matter of history that not only did 
we fight the enemy in front upon a hundred bloody 
battlefields, but a Party at home at our firesides was 
constantly laboring day and night to assist the men 
who were seeking the overthrow of our armies and the 
destruction of our Government. They did all they 
could to discourage our soldiers, and finally, in con- 
vention in 1864 in Chicago, stated to the American 
people that the war was a failure; that our soldiers 
must lay down their arms in front of the rebels ; that 
our gallant fleet must come back and anchor in North- 
ern waters, and that the Rebellion must triumph. 

"The great Republican Party met in its Convention 
bleeding at every pore by the fall of two hundred 
thousand of its noblest men. It solemnly declared 
that this war was not a failure, and that if it took 
every drop of blood in our veins, and every dollar 
from the National treasury, that rebellion must and 
should go down. We went onward, and in face of 
the violent opposition of the Democratic Party at 
home as well as upon the battlefield, and we carried 
the war forward until every armed foe had surren- 
dered to General Grant. 

"The war was over and we again elected Abraham 
Lincoln, but he fell by the hand of the assassin. 
Soon after this, Andrew Johnson, vice-President of 
the United States, betrayed the Party that elected 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 141 

him; and then the Republican Party, rising above 
the man whom they had elected, and around whom 
they would naturally rally, said: 'You are betray- 
ing our principles, you are betraying the country and 
the flag; we ignore you and spew you out of our 
mouths as a reproach' ; and that instant another Party 
picked him up. We had a Congress bold, firm, and 
resolute. The States that were in rebellion were dis- 
organized and needed reconstructing. The great 
Republican Party said: 'We will reconstruct these 
States upon the basis of loyalty; we must reconstruct 
these States through the instrumentahty of those men 
who have been true to the country, — true to the flag.' 
There was a Party in this land who, when the rebels 
had laid down their arms, took them by their blood- 
slippery fingers, and said: 'Under the Constitution 
and under the flag, strictly and legally, these men 
have a right, although their skirts are dripping with 
the blood of Union soldiers, to be lifted at once into 
political power.' The great Republican Party of 
this country said: 'No, never! We will recon- 
struct these States upon the basis of loyalty.' That 
was the spirit of the Republican Party. 

"We sought to impeach Andrew Johnson for high 
crimes and misdemeanors, but a great Party rallied 
around, shielded, and protected him. In 1868, the 
great Republican Party organized and marshaled its 



142 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

forces for a severe political contest, and were met by 
the great Democratic Party of the North, assisted by 
its Southern allies. We again laid down our plat- 
form of principles, broad and generous, and upon 
that platform nominated as our standard-bearer that 
man, the invincible hero of one hundred battlefields. 
Our victory was complete and overwhelming." 

Turning to the Liberal-Republican-Democratic 
nominee, Burrows appealed to the apprehensions of 
the people that another rebelhon might be in sight, 
and again played upon their patriotic loyalty to the 
army which had defended the Union. A contem- 
porary newspaper report of one of his campaign 
speeches says: "The unapproachable climax to 
which he can carry the impulse of patriotism is beyond 
analysis and objection. The newness and originality 
of the substance of his discourse is upon every lip." 

"I do not want Greeley for President," Burrows 
declared, "because I believe he is politically dis- 
honest; because he is a secessionist. If Horace 
Greeley should, perchance, be elected President of the 
United States, I believe that before two years have 
passed away General Grant will be called upon to put 
down another rebellion. The followers of Horace 
Greeley at the South say the 'lost cause' is not lost, 
but that it will yet be revived and be successful. I 



1872] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 143 

do not like the followers of Horace Greeley because 
they comprise the old rebel-Democratic Party. 

"Austin Blair says we must not go about 'rattling 
the dry bones of soldiers before the people.' What 
say the fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers of men 
who laid down their lives on Southern battlefields? 
Lyman Trumbull says we must 'stop yelhng about the 
horrors of Andersonville.' What! must the mother 
whose son, shut up in that horrible pen and reduced 
to a living skeleton, crawled to the dead line, and, 
while reaching his bony fingers across it to pick up a 
crumb of bread, was shot like a dog, — must she forget 
the horrors of Andersonville?" 

Burrows was always quick to take advantage of any 
opportunity for good-natured ridicule, and the coali- 
tion candidate offered his sense of humor an excellent 
opportunity for expression: "A number of very 
respectable men, and some not so respectable," he 
explained, "assembled at Cincinnati in May to nomi- 
nate a candidate for President, They did it, and when 
the child was born no one would admit its parentage. 
Schurz, Sumner, and others were called upon to look 
at the little one in its cradle, but they would not own 
it. They turned sadly away, one by one, and said, 
'It isn't mine.' It was a very sickly infant. There 
was no milk upon which to feed it until at length it 



144 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1864 

was brought to the breasts of the Democratic Party, 
and the command given, 'Now suck or die.' " 

In another campaign speech he amused his 
audience by saying: "The position of the Liberal- 
RepubHcans is like the conduct of the steamboat 
captain who used a congregation, assembled to wor- 
ship on his boat, to sink down one end of his craft so 
as to get the other end out of the mud. The Demo- 
cratic craft is stuck in the mud, and the Liberal-Repub- 
licans are being used for the same purpose to which 
the steamboat captain put his devout worshipers, 
and when, if ever, the end for which they are being 
used is accomplished, they will be dismissed with an 
oath as wicked and heartless as was that of the captain 
of the boat." 

The overwhelming defeat of the Liberal-Republi- 
can-Democratic candidate was not due wholly to his 
weakness, although this prevented the protest against 
the Republicans from being sufficiently vigorous to 
impress the Party with the necessity of immediate and 
complete reform within itself. Public opinion is 
slow to change, sectional feeling still ran high, and 
the Republican Party was continued in power, flushed 
with success. Triumph is intoxicating, and refuses 
to recognize impending disaster. When Grant began 
his second term as President of the United States, 
Burrows first took his seat in Congress. 




REPRESENTATIVE BURROWS 

1872 



I 



CHAPTER V 
In Congress and Out. 1873-1878 

T would be interesting if Burrows had recorded 
with undisguised frankness his first impressions 
of Congress when he once found himself a member of 
the Lower House. Years before, in the early Penn- 
sylvania days, after the epoch-making experience of 
listening to Daniel Webster's speech and before he 
was ten years old, he had been discovered mounted 
on a, stump back of the barn, delivering an oration. 
The derisive jeers from his brothers hurt his pride but 
failed to shake his confidence. "I don't care," the 
embryo statesman reiterated between his sobs of 
mortification ; "some day you will hear my voice in the 
halls of Congress." 

The Republican Party had been, and still was, his 
ideal. In his campaigning he had exaggerated its 
merits and minimized its weaknesses; and to do this 
over and over again inevitably resulted in having the 
brief which he presented to the people become well- 
defined in his own mind. Anticipation had now 
turned into realization, — but the Grand Old Party 
had sunk far below its early ideals. It was incom- 
es 



146 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

petent and corrupt, and even its most loyal friend 
could not fail to recognize its decline nor to appreciate 
the certainty of impending rebuke at the hands of the 
people. 

There is no question that Burrows did appreciate 
the situation to the fullest, even though he never gave 
voice to any such acknowledgment. It is impossible 
to believe other than that his high ideals were 
shocked, that his ever-present optimism was rudely 
shaken. Yet he would have told us, with a sincerity 
which no one could doubt, that nothing he observed 
weakened his belief in the Republican Party as an 
institution; that the very fact of its decline empha- 
sized the need of loyalty on the part of all true Repub- 
licans; that its reform was inevitable, and that this 
reform could come only from within. He was a 
partisan always, but from conviction rather than from 
blindness to Party weaknesses. The Republican 
Party had drawn him into its ranks as a youth with 
a rekindled conscience, he had seen it preserve the 
Union and stamp out the curse of slavery. The 
Democrats, in his mind, were still unpurged of their 
disloyalty and lack of patriotism, and at their best 
were less to be trusted than the Republicans at their 
worst. One might say of Burrows as Thayer says of 
John Hay, who was obsessed by this same indomitable 
devotion to the Republican Party: "He was keen 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 147 

enough to see that thick-and-thin partisanship appears 
illogical, not to say absurd, to the eyes of pure reason ; 
he repudiated without demur this or that corrupt 
politician or Party act; but he held that an institution 
must be judged by its essentials and not by its details, 
especially when these are unworthy." ^ 

Some one once asked Burrows regarding the integ- 
rity of men in public hfe, and his answer was given 
with much feehng: "Public men," he declared, 
"are, with but few exceptions, honest, and are con- 
scientiously trying to serve the pubHc interest. If 
there are dishonest men in Congress they were dis- 
honest before they came here, and the blame for their 
being in Washington rests with their constituents, 
who should have kept them at home. When an 
honest man is elected to Congress he will continue to 
be honest; a dishonest man will be the same in one 
place as in another." 

The Forty-third Congress, of which Burrows now 
found himself a part, was perhaps less dishonest and 
less corrupt than its immediately preceding body, but 
this was due more to the wholesale respect inspired 
by the righteous indignation of their constituents 
throughout the Nation than to any real desire on the 
part of its members as a whole to institute a real 
reform. The Forty-third Congress was in itself a 

^Thayer: "The Life of John Hay," volume I, page 423. 



148 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

remarkable body. It was presided over by James G. 
Blaine, and Benjamin F. Butler was the most con- 
spicuous member on the floor. "Silver Dick" Bland, 
of Missouri, "Joe" Cannon, of Illinois, and Thomas 
C. Piatt, of New York, like Burrows became members 
of the House at this same session. It was a powerful 
organization, but the Credit MobiUer scandals, 
brought to hght by the Congressional investigation in 
1872, had left their taint upon certain of the members 
still holding their seats with full power and authority. 
The Credit Mobiher was an incorporated body 
through which all the profits received from contracts 
made for the construction of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road accrued to the controlling stockholders. In 
1867, certain financiers, led by Oakes Ames, a mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives from Massachu- 
setts, and holding a majority of the Union Pacific 
stock, awarded to themselves as controllers of the 
Credit Mobiher the contract to build and equip a large 
portion of the road on conditions which guaranteed 
to them practically all the proceeds from the stock 
and bonds which the Union Pacific Railroad created. 
It was desirable to protect this scheme from Con- 
gressional interference, and to accomplish this Ames 
distributed at par a large amount of the stock of the 
Credit Mobiher among his colleagues in Congress, 
placing this stock, as he frankly admitted, where it 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 149 
would do the most good. In less than a year the 
dividends amounted to about 340 per cent. Among 
those who accepted the opportunity offered by Ames 
were some of the most influential men in Congress, 
and as a result of the investigation a state of corrup- 
tion was shown up which appalled the American 
people. Colfax, vice-President with Grant in his 
first Administration, was seriously tainted; Wilson, 
vice-President in Grant's second Administration, was 
also affected. An investigating committee recom- 
mended for expulsion Oakes Ames, and James Brooks 
of New York, but the House merely censured the 
offending members. Patterson, of New Hampshire, 
was also recommended for expulsion from the Senate, 
but as his term expired on March 4, 1873, ^^ action 
was taken. Many other members who were declared 
by the committee guilty of corrupt acts or motives 
were still left over from the Forty-second Congress, 
with a serious stain against their names in the eyes of 
their constituents and of the country at large. 

The first measure of importance on which Burrows 
had an opportunity to vote, and in regard to which he 
addressed Congress, was the so-called Salary Grab 
Bill. This was a proposition brought up at the close 
of the previous session to increase the salaries for 
the President, vice-President, Cabinet officers, judges 
of the Supreme Court, and members of Congress. 



150 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

The increase for the Senators and the Representatives 
of $2500 a year was made retroactive, and each mem- 
ber voting on the Bill would receive $5000 for his 
two years of service just coming to an end. Defended 
by Butler and opposed by men like Garfield, the Bill 
was pushed through just before the Forty-second 
Congress expired, and, as a result, popular feeling 
ran high. Party lines were forgotten in the denun- 
ciation throughout the country of what was termed the 
"back-pay steal." 

This was Burrows' earliest opportunity to sound 
his note for the reform of the Republican Party and 
to put on record his high principles of integrity which 
characterized his position on every question through- 
out his long service. Many of the members who 
joined in the successful effort to restore the salaries 
to the original figures were undoubtedly influenced 
by the unqualified criticism of their constituents, but 
Burrows had only his convictions and his conscience 
to consider. He expressed himself with clearness 
and firmness in his maiden speech, in the course of 
which he said: 

"If the passage of the salary law of March 3, 1873, 
was so obnoxious to the American people and fraught 
with such disastrous consequences to the Republican 
Party, this protracted discussion over a proposition 
for its repeal, this hesitancy and debate, will only 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 151 

serve to heighten that odium and enhance that peril. 
The longer this discussion continues the less con- 
fidence will the people have in the sincerity of our 
professions or the good faith of our ultimate action. 
The longer we postpone a vote upon some measure 
embodying substantial repeal the less will be the 
merit accorded to our future conduct. That action, 
which in the beginning would have been regarded as 
an evidence of public virtue, may be so delayed as to 
be looked upon as inspired only by public necessity. 
If we hesitate much longer, when we do vote for 
repeal, I fear the people will say of us as was said of 
Caesar when he put aside the proffered crown, 'He 
would fain have had it. He was very loath to lay his 
fingers off it.' " 

The financial panic of September, 1873, and its 
effect upon the industrial condition of the country, 
forced the political and social condition of the South, 
still unfortunate and unsatisfactory, into the back- 
ground, and Congress was concerned for a time with 
efforts to relieve the distress of commercial interests. 
One of the suggestions was a proposition to increase 
the amount of greenbacks in circulation, but this, 
known as the "Inflation Bill," ^ was vetoed by Presi- 
dent Grant, and a compromise was effected, fixing 
the maximum at the amount actually in circulation. 

1 See also page 322. 



152 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

This compromise left bad feeling on both sides, the 
"hard money" members being squarely aligned 
against the "soft money" ^ members. Burrows' posi- 
tion on this Bill was influenced by that taken by Sena- 
tor Ferry, of Michigan, and the young Representative 
made a stirring speech in favor of the "blood-stained" 
greenback. This was later to operate against him 
politically, as hosts of Western voters became alien- 
ated from the Republican Party, looking upon the Na- 
tional Bank System as a device catering solely to the 
advantage of Eastern financiers. With this weaken- 
ing of Party strength came, during 1874, further 
revelations of corruption which reflected upon the 
Administration. Investigations became the order of 
the day, and Grant's blind devotion to his friends in 
spite of the revelations caused further rumblings of 
discontent. Many influential men in the Republican 
Party came to believe that the influences which con- 
trolled Grant were distinctly against the best interests 
of the country at large, and the President's final 
abandonment of Civil Service Reform intensified this 
impression. 

During this first term of Congress, Burrows took 
part in the debate upon a House Bill to regulate com- 
merce among the States when carried on by railroad 

iThe term "soft money" included the doctrines of all who opposed 
specie or hard money as the basis of the monetary system. 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 153 
corporations existing by virtue of State law. His 
speech was delivered on March 14, 1874, ^^^ 
stamped him at once as a profound constitutional 
lawyer. It was in the beginnings of the discussion 
of this subject, later to become so important; the field 
was new, and its leading principles remained to be 
developed. Burrows' speech dwelt upon the essen- 
tial features of this question, and demonstrated its 
essential principles as they are understood today after 
the subject has received incessant investigation. His 
argument was, first, that control of the subject lay in 
Congress and nowhere else, that the power of Con- 
gress in the premises was ample, absolute, exclusive, 
and supreme. A long line of authorities and de- 
cisions in the upper courts, bearing upon the point, 
were grouped in this speech, establishing the power 
of Congress beyond all doubt. The limitations on 
the action of Congress in the jurisdiction of the State 
over all commerce not extending past its boundaries 
was also fully established. It was made clear, as a 
fundamental principle, that the authority of Congress 
could not be construed as limited to navigation, as the 
railroad interests had proposed; and, moreover, that 
it was the function of Congress, when the occasion for 
its exercise arose, to bring the transportation tariffs 
under principles of law conforming to the pubhc 
interest. 



154 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

As this was an entirely new branch of statecraft, 
the question had to be treated under the authorization 
of the Constitution, and it was necessary to adapt the 
provisions on this subject to a branch of the pubUc 
interest not dreamed of at the time the Constitution 
was framed. Garfield said of Burrows' argument: 
*'It is a white light that will clearly guide and mark the 
course of railroad legislation for all time to come." 
It is interesting to note that the position taken by 
Burrows over forty years ago is exactly that more 
recently taken by Roosevelt, Knox, and other authori- 
ties. 

Burrows was allied with the Radicals and hope- 
lessly in the minority in the second session of the 
Forty-third Congress, and the only measure which 
they succeeded in passing in the face of opposition by 
Democrats and moderate Republicans was an amend- 
ment to the original Civil Rights Bill, and in this 
Burrows took active part. This had been Sumner's 
pet measure just before his death; in fact, on his 
death-bed Sumner secured from E. Rockwood Hoar a 
promise to push the Bill through. In brief, the Bill 
stood as a guarantee of equal rights to the negroes in 
all hotels, places of amusement, and public convey- 
ances, and forbade their exclusion from juries. 
Several Republican States had already begun to con- 
duct their common schools on a basis of equality, and 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 155 

the plan was furnishing its own justification. The 
powerful necessity for securing the utmost diffusion 
of intelligence in the old slave States, and the cer- 
tainty that division of educational resources among 
two sets of schools would defeat the ends aimed at in 
the case of the colored people, were used to strong 
effect in Burrows' speech/ He believed that its 
passage was absolutely essential to a full expression 
of the obligations assumed by the Republican Party 
with the successful outcome of the war. 

"Shall it be said," he cried passionately on the 
floor, "that this grand Party, which with determined 
courage beat back the propagandists of the slave 
power in their encroachments upon our territory, 
unfurled the banner of liberty and equality, and 
achieved the victory of i860; hewed with gleaming 
swords the fetters from four millions of bondsmen; 
wiped from the Constitution the last recognition of 
the rights of man to hold property in man ; and placed 
all upon an equality before the law — shall it now be 
said that this Party falters and fails before a proposi- 
tion to protect the black man in the simplest yet most 
sacred rights of American citizenship? I cannot, I 
will not believe it. For myself, I will never be guilty 
of such shameless treachery, nor lower the standard 
of their defense one inch from its lofty bearing. By 

1 February 5, 1875. 



156 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

their unswerving loyalty in the midst of treason; by 
their patient enaurance in camp and on the march; 
by their fidelity, which knew no treachery; by their 
heroism in battle, which made them insensible to 
danger; by their devotion to the Republic in the hour 
of its supremest peril, and in the name of the Con- 
stitution of my country, upon which they stand secure, 
I demand for them equal civil rights and equal pro- 
tection wherever the shadow of our banner falls." 

With the passing of the Civil Rights Bill the long 
record of partisan legislation on reconstruction came 
to an end. 

Burrows' speech in support of this Bill attracted 
wide attention, and marked the beginning of his 
National reputation as an orator. Letters of con- 
gratulation poured in on him, but none pleased him 
more than one received from his brother Jerome. 

From Jerome Bonaparte Burrows 

Painesville, Ohio, February 7, 1875 

I had the satisfaction of reading in my New York 
Tribune this morning that you had apparently made a 
good hit by your speech on the Civil Rights Bill. I 
read the Tribune extract or report of your remarks, 
but could get no idea as to their merit. It would be 
precisely like trying to pass on some effort of my own. 
I can only say that the remarks were followed by "ap- 
plause" from floor and gallery, and by warm con- 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 157 
gratulations of Republican members. That satisfied 
and gratified me to such an extent that I wept for 
joy. I write now to send my congratulations and 
joy for your success. . . . 

The last act of Burrows in the Forty-third Congress 
was to speak on the Security of Elections, on February 
27, 1875. This was a Bill to prevent the subversion 
of authority in the States, and in his speech he made 
a strong appeal for the fairness and security of the 
ballot. In rhetorical effect and in the application of 
the needs of the country to the policy of the Bill it 
became famous. It was widely published and com- 
mended, and was made the subject of a striking 
cartoon by Nast in Harper's Weekly. 

There was no doubt that the methods employed by 
the whites in demonstrating their superiority in 
Alabama and other Southern States were intolerable, 
yet the moderate Republicans, aided materially by 
Speaker Blaine, succeeded in filibustering to delay the 
progress of the Bill until, when passed by the House 
by a narrow margin, it was too late for action on the 
part of the Senate. Burrows was stirred to the 
depths by the coercion of the blacks and the violence 
at the polls, and he expressed himself in ringing 
words : 

"If the history of the South for these ten years 



158 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

could be written in all its horrible details," he said, 
"it would present one of the blackest pages in the 
peaceful annals of the civilized world. . . . Men of 
the South, there is a road to peace, and there is but 
one road. In it lies a peaceful solution of all our 
difficulties. Whether you pursue it is a matter of 
your own free choice. It is a highway on which if 
you will but walk you will find speedy and enduring 
peace, and unexampled prosperity. Men of all 
Parties can walk on it, for it is obstructed by no con- 
stitutional doubts, but is paved by the Federal com- 
pact. May I point you to it? Behold it here. 
Strip the hideous masks from your outlawed Ku- 
Klux; disband your White Leagues; visit swift and 
condign punishment upon your unarrested and 
untried felons, and enforce State and Federal law 
with a firm hand. Give to human life some security 
and to property protection ; recognize the equality of 
all men before the law, and their right to its fullest 
guardianship; put out the fires of your burning 
churches and school-houses ; make the freedom of the 
ballot so secure that there shall be no intimidation; 
let free speech be recognized; let ostracism be 
unknown ; renew your allegiance to the Government ; 
extend a generous welcome to Northern labor and 
Northern capital ; abandon all hope of the lost cause. 
In a word, 'accept the situation' in good faith and in 



REQUIRED TO LIVE UNDER A 
NEW ORDER OF THINGS 

F. F., Esq. " Durinpr Slavery, I ruled su- 
preme; while Know-Notliingisin lasted, I 
killed Foreigners; in the War, I killed 
Yanl-eeb, and since then, both White and 
Rldck Niggers; but now you are taking 
away all my Privileges, what shall I do ^ " 



^TJ 




nast cartoon from 
weekly" 



HARPER S 



" Men of the South, there is a road to peace, and there is but one road. In it 
lies a peaceful solution of all our diiliculties. May I point you to it ? Behold 
it here. Strip the hideous masks from your outlawed Ku-Klux; disband your 
White Leagues; visit swift and condign punishment upon your unarrested and 
untried felons, and enforce State and Federal law with a firm hand. Give to 
human life some security and to property protection; recognize the equality 
of all men before the law, and their right to its fullest guaniiaiishij); put out 
the fires of your burning churches and school-houses; make the freedom of the 
ballot so secure that there shall be no intimidation; let fret^ speecli be recog- 
nized; let ostracism be unknown; renew your allegiance to tlie Government; 
extend a generous welcome to Northern labor and Northern capital; abandon 
all hope of the lost cause. In a word ' accept the situation ' in good faith and 
in the highest sense, and you will have a peace universal." (From speech of 
Representative J. C. Burrows, February 27, 1876.) 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 159 
the highest sense, and you will have a peace universal. 
Do this, and your barren fields will stir with a new 
life; your desolate cities will echo with the hum of 
returning industry; your spacious harbors will choke 
with the tide of commerce. Do this, and the whole 
South will spring from her baptism of blood into the 
fullness of a new life, redeemed and regenerated for- 
ever. All hail that auspicious day ! " 

The condition in which the country found itself as 
a result of the panic of 1873 proved an important 
factor in the Fall elections. During the four years 
immediately preceding there had existed an unprec- 
edented industrial activity and a corresponding 
expansion. Particularly was this true in the case of 
railroads, which had been built far in advance of 
present requirements, and therefore failed to yield 
returns on the invested capital. The Republican 
Party was held responsible for these unsatisfactory 
conditions, and the plight of the Party was made 
worse by its failure to produce campaign material 
from the outrages in the South, inasmuch as many of 
the statements were shown to be overdrawn and 
untrustworthy. It was simply one more straw on top 
of a long accumulating mass of unsavory evidence 
which produced a tidal wave, sweeping Democratic 
officials into Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Massa- 
chusetts, weaking Republican predominance through- 



i6o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

out the country, and defeating so many Republican 
candidates for Congress that the coming House of 
Representatives had a Democratic majority of nearly 
seventy. For the first time since the Southern States 
seceded the Democratic Party found itself placed in a 
position of equality in legislative administration. 

The Republican Party was in the throes of demoral- 
ization, and Burrows went out of office not through 
any loss of personal popularity or prestige, but 
because the people of Michigan, in common with 
other Republican States, were determined to place 
their protest on record. As a result, the Greeley- 
Democratic candidate, Allen Potter, was elected to 
the Forty-fourth Congress. 

The four years between the Forty-third and the 
Forty-sixth Congresses offered Burrows the longest 
consecutive period for the practice of his profession 
since entering the field of National politics ; but even 
these years were filled with political activity. No 
doubt existed in his mind as to the certainty of his 
return to Washington, and each day's work was in 
preparation for the larger activities which he felt were 
sure to come. 

The reputation of Burrows as a campaigner came 
strongly to the front during these years. His ability 
in this direction was well known to his constituents. 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 161 

and his Party leaders were now beginning to realize 
that these talents should be given National expres- 
sion. In March, 1875, Burrows made a brilliant 
campaign for the Republicans in New Hampshire ; in 
May of the same year he spoke in Philadelphia from 
the front of Independence Hall ; and in July he made 
a stumping tour in California, speaking with great 
effectiveness in every large city of the State. 

The early speeches made by Burrows in Congress 
continue to strike one as being overloaded with florid 
expression and grandiloquent oratory, and it is in- 
teresting to note how the style of the orator changes 
as the years advance and as the demands of the people 
become different. Burrows, in common with other 
orators, gave the people what they wanted, and the 
style of oratory may be followed with accuracy in 
determining, during any period, the nature of the 
people's spirit. Take, for example, the following 
report of one of Burrows' speeches from the Oakland 
(Cal.) Transcript, and note the fervid expression of 
the daily press of that period : 

"Cold type and printers' ink cannot convey the 
fiery words and glowing apostrophes of the eloquent 
speaker. It would require the inspired pen and 
glowing imagery of an Ezekiel to paint the descriptive 
word-panorama of the orator. He moved his audi- 
ence as the changing winds move the great ocean — 



i62 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

now carrying them along with the force of a Gulf 
Stream argument; now tossing them into ripphng 
whitecaps of. mirth and laughter; then drawing a 
picture which moistened the eyes of the hearers with 
passionate tears, and again stirring the vast audience 
into tumultuous waves of applause and shouts with 
his storm of eloquence. It was the first time in more 
than four years that the old Republican fires have 
been kindled to a blaze upon the sacred altars, and the 
people wondered that they had allowed those fires to 
wane and smoulder." 

Burrows' political speeches in each campaign 
varied somewhat as to topics, but essentially in lan- 
guage and expression. The results possessed mathe- 
matical precision, but the presentation of the material 
was distinctly original. This gave to each speech 
the novelty of exposition which served to interest even 
those who had previously listened to him. Burrows 
had the reputation of being the most instructive 
speaker in the Republican Party. He possessed a 
broad grasp of Governmental affairs; he had the 
experience derived from struggling for many years 
with problems of legislation; he had knowledge of 
current events and topics of foreign and domestic 
import; his historical acquirements and his deep 
insight into State affairs and into all the great ques- 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 163 

tions of National policy qualified him to be a teacher 
on these subjects. This personal equipment, 
together with his talents as an orator, made his 
speeches especially appreciated by men and women 
of all Parties. 

On his way home from the Pacific Coast, in 1875, 
Burrows spoke in Nevada, and spent a week in Iowa 
campaigning for the Republican ticket. No sooner 
had he reached Michigan than he was immediately 
summoned to Ohio, where he joined Hayes, Senator 
Sherman, Senator Morton, and Carl Schurz, making 
sixteen speeches in the larger cities of the State. In 
the following Spring (1876) he opened the campaign 
in New Hampshire. 

This was the year when Burrows confidently 
expected to return to Congress, as the Fourth Con- 
gressional District of Michigan was satisfied with its 
rebuke of the Republican Party in 1874, and had 
returned safely to the Republican fold; but he was to 
have his first experience in local Party treachery. 
Burrows was a man who took other men at their face 
value. He himself was straightforward and loyal 
and he expected nothing else from those around him 
So it was that the disloyalty of men whom he had con 
sidered friends stung him far more than mere defeat 
The fact that he made a memorandum in his scrap 



i64 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

book at this time is in itself an evidence of the depth 
of his feehng, for he was by nature incUned to accept 
things philosophically as they came: 

"For my own personal gratification," he notes, "I 
want to record that I was defeated for the nomination 
to Congress from the Fourth District of Michigan in 
the year of our Lord 1876 by the most unblushing 
treachery of supposed friends which has come to light 
in eighteen hundred and forty-three years. Clapp 
and Hull of St. Joseph County betrayed me, and while 
in Convention of fifty-two delegates I was promised 
more than enough to nominate, I received only 
twenty-three, — four less than sufficient, and Keight- 
ley ^ was nominated by a trick, a fraud." 

Here was the opportunity for Burrows to put his 
creed into practical operation, and he proved the 
sincerity of his spoken word. "Let me assure you," 
you remember he stated publicly, "that nothing of 
any private character; no personal grievance how- 
ever great; no personal matter, however it may wound 
my pride, — nothing shall ever drive me from the 
ranks of that grand old Party." 

There was no evidence in Burrows' attitude that he 
harbored the slightest resentment toward any individ- 
ual, nor was he less zealous in campaigning for the 
Presidential ticket than he would have been had the 

1 Judge Edwin F. Keightley, of St. Joseph County. 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 165 

campaign possessed a personal interest for himself. 
Irdeed, his activity in his own State helped to elect 
Keightley. In all he made more than ninety speeches 
in New York, Michigan, and Indiana, and in the last- 
named State campaigned with Benjamin Harrison and 
Schuyler Colfax. As to the effectiveness of his 
speaking, Colfax in a personal letter dated at South 
Bend, Indiana, September 6, 1876, wrote: "No 
speech delivered here for years has had the effect 
yours had. I can count a dozen whom I know of, who 
had become doubtful or adverse, who were 'straight- 
ened out' by your most telling speech. The uni- 
versal demand is that you must come here again 
before our October election, and your crowd, large 
as it was, will be quadrupled. You need not trouble 
yourself about any new speech. Amplified as it must 
be by your repetition of it, it will suit exactly, and to 
three-quarters of your hearers will be all new. But 
you must not omit about the Rebel claim titles and 
R-e-f-o-r-m. We have a last grand rally (before 
Oct. election) at Mishawaka 4 miles off, Saturday 
afternoon, Oct. 7th, and here Monday night, Oct. 9th. 
We want you for both, but I suppose that will be 
impossible, delighted as we should be to have you. 
But without fail we want you here Monday night, 
('the night before the battle, mother') and you must 
not say 'No' to that. . . ." 



i66 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

The Hayes campaign and election, ending as it did 
in such a dramatic climax, offered Burrows an 
unusual opportunity to put himself into his speeches. 
It was a disappointment to him that Blaine had failed 
to receive the nomination, but he felt, as did others 
of Blaine's friends, that it was only a postponement 
for the great statesman. Hayes was far less able 
than the opponent he defeated in the Republican 
Convention ; but he stood a staunch foe of corruption, 
and was strong as a Civil Service reformer. Tilden, 
the Democratic nominee, was a worthy opponent, and 
the Repubhcan Party had given the Democrats ample 
opportunity for criticism and condemnation to be 
made use of in the campaign. The closeness of the 
election, Hayes and Wheeler finally being declared 
elected by 185 to 184 electoral votes, shows the 
intensity of the campaign; and the success of the 
Republican Party in capturing all the contested 
electoral votes introduced an exciting element which 
stirred men to the depths. Indeed, these disputes 
will never be settled. There is undoubtedly much to 
criticise on both sides, but the discovery made later 
by a committee appointed to investigate election 
frauds in the South of a secret cipher and telegraphic 
correspondence between close friends of Tilden, 
which arranged for bribery of the returning Boards, 
gives historians greater authority for considering 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 167 

Hayes' election as legal. This, however, can never 
explain how the Democratic governors could be 
elected on the same tickets which were thrown out as 
fraudulent when considering the Presidential electors. 

When the time came for the next campaign for 
Congress (1878) Burrows was a more seasoned 
pohtician. He had made up his mind to sit in the 
Forty-sixth Congress, and he did not intend to permit 
any slip to compass his defeat. The ease with which 
he secured the nomination did not lull him into any 
false confidence, nor did the expressions of congratu- 
lation received from statesmen of National reputation, 
who by this time had become his personal friends. 
On August 3, 1878, Blaine wrote him from Augusta, 
Maine: "I congratulate you cordially on your nom- 
ination. Many friends — new and old — ^will hail 
with delight your return to public life. But the first 
thing to carry Michigan is to secure a rousing victory 
in Maine, and we want you to lend the aid of your 
persuasive eloquence to do it. We want you to begin 
with us in Portland Monday, Aug. 19th, and take a 
starring tour of fifteen or twenty days through our 
largest and best towns. You cannot estimate the 
amount of good you can do. Our State Committee 
are unanimous and enthusiastic for you. Please 
telegraph me to make the appointments." 

Schuyler Colfax wrote him again from South Bend, 



i68 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

under date of August 9, 1878: "Although out of 
political life myself, with neither desire nor willing- 
ness to return to it in any capacity, I am especially 
glad that one so admirably fitted for it by eloquence 
and energy, and who deserved it so well, has been 
nominated for Congress in your district; and I hope 
there is no doubt of your triumphant reelection, 
although we hear strange rumors from Michigan of 
doubts as to the result in that once overwhelmingly 
Republican State. . . ." 

Burrows responded to Blaine's invitation to spend 
two weeks campaigning with him in Maine. In 
return, Blaine later went to Michigan and assisted 
him in his own campaign, visiting him at his home, 
and strengthening the friendship which existed up to 
the time of the "plumed knight's" death. During 
the campaign Burrows made one hundred and fifteen 
speeches, averaging two hours each. He came 
through triumphant, and was elected to the Forty- 
sixth Congress by a handsome plurality. Even up 
to the last, however. Burrows was fearful lest some- 
thing might occur to bring about a repetition of his 
disappointment two years earlier, and he urged Blaine 
to come to Michigan for a second time. Blaine in 
explaining why he could not respond, also gives the 
embryo statesman advice from the experience of an 
elder statesman. 



1878] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 169 
From James G. Blaine 

AtTGcrsTA, Maine, November 10, 1878 

My dear Burrows: 

I did not get your letter till the campaign was 
nearly over — I only got home day before yesterday. 
But I knew you were not in danger. Victory was in 
the air for you. You did not need me! Your 
defeat two years ago made you over-cautious. In 
your many victories of the future you will have 
absolute confidence. My sincere regards and con- 
gratulations to Mrs. Burrows — ^and your daughter — 
I fell in love with both. . . . 

The return of Burrows to Congress attracted more 
than ordinary interest, as he had already come to be 
looked upon as a growing power in his Party, and one 
upon whom the leaders had already begun to lean. 
Moses Coit Tyler wrote him from the University of 
Michigan at Ann Arbor, on November 8, 1878: "I 
want to tell you that I am one of the many who rejoice 
over your return to Congress, where I hope and 
believe you will have a career still more distinguished 
than before. The Republican Party must and will 
stand steady for political and financial honor. Your 
recent speeches in the good cause I have heard spoken 
of with the highest praise. Success attend you." 

Senator T. W. Ferry wrote from Grand Haven, 



170 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1873 

Michigan, November 9, 1878; "Many congratula- 
tions on your splendid success, due greatly to your 
efficient canvass. I am glad you go in with so large 
a majority. Your thorough canvass has made you 
more intimately and favorably known in your district. 
One genial woman under your roof will laugh more 
heartily, and win you, as she always does, more 
friends. Kind regards to her. Best wishes." 

Colfax wrote again (November 9, 1878): "I 
write to congratulate you with all my heart on the 
magnificent victory you won in your district last 
Tuesday, — ^honorable to the district and thrice honor- 
able to yourself. I know the odds you had to 
encounter, and which enhanced the brilliancy of your 
successful campaign. With best wishes (although 
mad that you didn't come and speak to us) ." 

After the election Burrows settled down again to 
his law practice while waiting for the opening of the 
Forty-sixth Congress, taking Frank Knappen, a son 
of his former associate, into partnership under the 
firm name of Burrows & Knappen. In a memoran- 
dum in his scrap-book he records: "This year 
(1878) I lose a sister and my father, so that I have 
left of my kin only five brothers. How rapidly my 
family is gathering on the other side!" 



CHAPTER VI 
Back in Congress. 1879-1885 

THE experiences of the four years out of Congress 
represented Burrows' first real political educa- 
tion, and resulted in making him more thorough in 
his analyses of public questions and more genuinely 
effective in his approach to National problems. 
Previously his oratory had been almost too persuasive, 
and this was dangerous to his own personal develop- 
ment. The ease with which he had swayed audiences 
by the spell of his personality and the effectiveness 
of his eloquence had lulled him into a sense of false 
security. A careful examination into his speeches 
previous to this time shows surface excellence rather 
than basic solidity. 

His defeats had given Burrows time and oppor- 
tunity for self-analysis. He had learned that to 
produce lasting effects upon his audiences he must 
not only win their sympathetic interest but must 
educate them to look with his eyes upon the various 
problems of the day. From this time on one finds 
a growing mastery of the causes which Burrows 

espoused, and his appeal becomes correspondingly 

171 



172 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

more effective. His campaigning from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific had given him a broader outlook upon 
life in general, and a deeper knowledge of the great 
country of which he had previously spoken with 
limited personal acquaintance. An Iowa paper, 
reporting one of his campaign speeches, says : 

"He possesses those remarkable gifts of an orator 
brought by familiar contact with the masses. Still, 
he is a man of polish, with fury, animation, and 
nerve that enable him to command the largest 
audiences. ... He made running comments that 
brought down the house. With apt anecdote, 
humorous allusions, stories that went straight to the 
mark, he held his audience spellbound. Facts, 
figures, statements, records, presented in the manner 
of Mr. Burrows are not forgotten ; they are treasured 
up. . . . Mr. Burrows speaks like a man of the 
people. He knows the beating of the great heart 
of the Nation. He has been deep down among the 
masses and has felt the pulses of patriotism and 
devotion to the Union, whence he has obtained the 
inspiration that animates his efforts. Filled with 
such inspiration, he electrifies his audience. Forti- 
fied with facts, he makes his logic irrepressible. It 
carries conviction, it rivets unfailing attention, and 
has left a record on the present campaign second to 
none. He is another Ingersoll in his overwhelming 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 173 

treatment of political issues, in his novel and original 
way of presenting them. He is always and at all 
times master of the situation." 

Burrows' facility in meeting interruption during 
his campaigning always added to the enjoyment of 
his audiences. Once, when speaking on the Civil 
Rights Bill, a man demanded, in a thick and unsteady 
voice, whether he thought "a nigger was as good as 
a white man." "I don't know," replied Burrows; 
"but if five or six very strong men will bring the white 
man up here we will look him over and tell him just 
how good he is." 

It was a different Burrows, then, which returned to 
Congress in 1879, for the four years had been 
momentous in the development of his personal asset. 
He found the Forty-sixth Congress Democratic. 
Randall was Speaker, and Garfield was the Repub- 
lican leader on the floor. Burrows seems consciously 
or unconsciously to have selected Garfield as a model, 
just as earlier he had taken Daniel Webster. Like 
him, Garfield had been a poor boy in the Western 
Reserve, a schoolmaster before he reached his major- 
ity, an ornate speaker while learning the meaning of 
true oratory, and a loyal soldier in the War of the 
Rebellion. 

Burrows soon made himself so vital a part of the 
House of Representatives that some one included him 



174 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

with Blaine, Garfield, and Logan among "Columbia's 
four aces in the Congressional game." The fact that 
lie was not a member of the Forty-fifth Congress 
undoubtedly made it easier for him to give his unqual- 
ified support to President Hayes in the crisis which 
forced the calling of the Forty-sixth Congress in 
extraordinary session, March 18 to July l, 1879. 
That he would have supported him is certain, such 
was his Party loyalty, but it cannot be denied that the 
President's concessions to the South had at least 
proved disappointing. To Burrows, the South was 
not yet purged of her original sin, and his high spirit, 
born in the stirring epoch preceding the war, and 
fanned to white heat on the battlefield, still resented 
what seemed to him to be the over-zealousness of the 
leaders of his own Party in placating the antagonisms, 
and in leaning backwards in giving the Southern 
States more than their share in the government of the 
re-united States. 

During Hayes' entire administration the executive 
action was grossly handicapped by the Democratic 
majority and by the lukewarm support of the Repub- 
lican minorities. The President vetoed the Bland- 
Allison Act, requiring the coinage of silver intrinsi- 
cally below market value, yet to be accepted as legal 
tender for payment of debts, — ^but the Bill was passed 
over his veto. The efforts made by the Government 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 175 
to retire the notes and greenbacks still in existence 
were blocked by the hostile law-makers. But the 
climax of the antagonism of the Democratic Congress 
was the attempt to coerce the President through the 
medium of Army Appropriations. Riders were put 
upon every Bill favored by the Executive, and the 
most objectionable was that which would have com- 
pelled the President to repeal permission for the army 
to keep peace at the polls in order to secure any 
appropriation for its support. No one seriously con- 
tended that the presence of the military was intended 
by the Republican Party to influence any man's vote, 
but rather to protect voters from intimidation. In 
the deadlock which ensued the Forty-fifth Congress 
passed out of existence, leaving the army with no 
provision for its maintenance. 

This was the situation which Burrows found when 
he assembled with the Forty-sixth Congress in extra 
session, after his four years' absence from Washing- 
ton. To him, it was another call to arms, no less 
serious than the one he had so promptly answered in 
1 862 . Any disappointment he may have felt over the 
President's past actions was forgotten ; this was where 
his Chief needed his support. But he was patient, 
listening to the arguments on the opponents' side of 
the House with eager diligence. Some one once 
asked Napoleon, when a student at Brienne, where he 



176 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

would get his ammunition if he were surrounded by 
hostile forces. "From the enemy, sir!" was his 
prompt response. So it was with Burrows. He 
heard Turner, of Kentucky, say, "If Mr. Hayes vetoes 
this Bill on account of the sixth section guarding the 
right of suffrage, then the responsibility for starving 
the army will rest on his shoulders, and not on ours." 
He heard Chalmers, of Mississippi, declare, "If free 
government must die, and die at the hands of such a 
President as this, then the Democratic Party can look 
in the face of the expiring Goddess of Liberty and say, 
'Shake not thy gory locks at me, thou canst not say I 
did it.' " He listened to Tucker, of Virginia, to 
Blackburn and Beck, of Kentucky, to Thurman, of 
Ohio, while they solemnly asserted, "We cannot 
yield, and will not surrender," "We will give him the 
army on the single condition that it shall never be 
used or be present at the polls," "Whether the course 
be right or wrong, it will be adopted, no matter what 
happens to the Appropriation Bills." Another 
speaker declared, "The President in exercising his 
veto power is resisting the will of the majority in Con- 
gress, and therefore his wishes should be disre- 
garded," and Burrows retorted with characteristic 
wit : "Did it ever occur to the constitutional lawyers 
upon the other side of this Chamber that the veto 
power of the President is always exercised against the 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 177 

will of the majority of both houses of Congress ; that 
until a measure shall have passed Congress the Presi- 
dent is powerless to veto? I have been unable to 
find a single instance where any President ever vetoed 
a measure that had not passed Congress." 

Then, just a month after the extra session had con- 
vened, Burrows was ready for his attack. McKinley, 
of Ohio, preceded him with a masterly speech, but 
McKinley had not just re-entered public Hfe after four 
years of patient waiting for this opportunity again to 
play his part in the war councils of his Party. To 
McKinley, it was a conflict of f orensics ; to Burrows, it 
was a new conspiracy against the Republic. So, on 
April 18, 1879, Burrows the soldier again drew his 
sword in defence, and entered the battle with the 
courage of one who knows that his cause is just. 

"I have no disposition," he said, "to revive or dis- 
cuss the issues of the war. ... No sooner had the 
Republican minority of this House, overborne by 
numbers, been driven from its first entrenchment 
where it made a stand in the defense of a peaceful 
ballot, than it is again assaulted by an exultant and 
defiant majority, and forced to do battle in the defense 
of a pure ballot. Now, as then, we present upon this 
side of the Chamber a solid front, confident of the 
strength of our position and the justice of our cause, 
and confident also that though defeated now we shall 



178 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

ultimately be supported by that mighty reserve, the 
majority of the American people, whose invincible 
power no Party can possibly withstand. . . . 

"I have neither the time nor the disposition to 
enter into a general discussion of the character of 
those laws sought to be repealed. Their nature and 
purpose are well known to the House and the coun- 
try; but I cannot refrain from observing that if the 
gentlemen on the other side of the Chamber are really 
anxious to preserve the peace and purity of the ballot- 
box, why attempt to tear down the only remaining 
National fortress reared for the defense of either? 
Do you desire, gentlemen, an honest registration? 
Those laws provide for it. Do you want a pure bal- 
lot? They promote it. Do you want a fair count? 
They insure it. Do you desire a true return? They 
enjoin it. Do you want order and peace at the polls? 
They command it. Do you want repeaters and bal- 
lot-box stuff ers, thugs, and red-shirts punished? 
They secure it. And there is nothing in these laws 
that is a terror to any man except to him who has al- 
ready committed or is now meditating some outrage 
upon the ballot-box of the country. 

"You declare that you want a pure and peaceable 
election ; and while you have been unsparing in your 
denunciation of all means employed by the Federal 
Government to insure it, not one word of rebuke, not 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 179 

a word of regret even, has fallen from the lips of any 
man on that side of the Chamber for the outrages per- 
petrated at the polls in the South, especially in 
Louisiana and in South Carolina, not six months ago ; 
in South Carolina, where you carried the elections by 
a system of frauds and ballot-box stuffing unparalleled 
in the history of nations; in Louisiana, by driving 
voters from the polls, seizing ballot-boxes through the 
instrumentality of armed ruffians, destroying ballots, 
driving men into exile, and invoking that system of 
murder and intimidation so long in vogue in the 
South, and which has been so efficient in crushing an 
entire race. . . . 

"When I read such a history and remember how 
you have overcome majorities in the South and 
stamped out a Party in blood, and made free speech 
and a free press, free homes, free emigration, and a 
free Ijallot impossible within many portions of the 
Southern States, I must confess that I listen with 
impatience to the hypercritical cant about peace, pro- 
tection, and purity at the polls. This very hour, 
while you are professing such jealous care for the 
rights of American citizens, a whole race is fleeing 
from your presence as they would fly from a pestilence. 
Not to escape Federal bayonets, but Southern bludg- 
eons! not to escape Federal bullets, but Southern 
bowie-knives ; not to escape Federal interference, but 



i8o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

Southern intimidation; not to escape Federal force, 
but Southern fraud; not to escape election laws, but 
enforced exile ; not to escape from Federal marshals, 
but from Southern murders ; not from honest registra- 
tion, but from masked raiders; not from supervisors 
of election laws, but from Southern shotguns. In a 
word, fleeing from a people and country where their 
every right is cloven down and their every wrong un- 
redressed. When I hear gentlemen on the other side 
of this Chamber denounce these outrages upon a free 
ballot and free men in the Southern States, it will be 
time for me to believe that you are really sincere and 
solicitous for the protection of the citizen and the 
purity of the ballot-box. . . . 

"Pardon me if I express my honest convictions that 
with all your professions you want neither peace nor 
purity at the polls. Your chiefest desire is the elec- 
tion of a Democratic President in 1880. By what 
means you little care. You want these laws repealed 
because they stand in the way of the consummation of 
such a purpose, for you know full well, and the coun- 
try knows, that if they are permitted to stand, and can 
be enforced, and every man in this Republic, North 
and South, allowed to vote as his conscience dictates, 
without injury or fear of injury to life or property, you 
could no more elect your President in 1880 than you 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 181 

are honestly entitled to your majority in either House 
of this Congress today. . . . 

"Let me recount a brief but startling history. On 
the 4th day of March just passed the President of the 
United States, by public proclamation, informed the 
country that the Forty-fifth Congress had closed its 
deliberations 'without making the usual and neces- 
sary appropriations for the legislative, executive, and 
judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1880, and without making the 
usual and necessary appropriations for the support 
of the army for the same fiscal year.' 

"Every statement in that proclamation is literally 
true. That Congress did adjourn without making 
the shghtest provision for the support of the legisla- 
tive, executive, or judicial branches of the Govern- 
ment, and without appropriating one single dollar 
for the support of the army of the United States. 
That same Congress knew, the moment it adjourned, 
that if no further legislation was had until the time 
for the regular session of this Congress in December 
next, it was inevitable that in less than four months 
from the hour of its adjournment the three great pil- 
lars that sustain and support the Federal fabric 
would, unless upheld by the omnipotent arm of a 
patriotic people, crumble and fall, while the army. 



i82 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

disbanded by starvation, would not be suffered to sur- 
vive the desolation that it might even stand guard 
over the sacred ruins. 

"That same Congress knew the moment it ad- 
journed that if matters were undisturbed, that if the 
country now would comply with what Jefferson Davis 
demanded in 1861, 'Let us alone,' the rising sun of 
July 1, 1879, would gild, not the temple, but the 
tomb of the Republic. Had there been no Executive 
to disturb this plot the Nation today would be totter- 
ing to its dissolution. Yet, thanks to the President 
of the United States, thanks to his patriotism and his 
courage, it is made possible for us to avert so dire a 
calamity." 

Then the speaker began to draw upon the ammuni- 
tion he had taken from the enemy, and the Demo- 
cratic side of the House was aghast at the deadly 
effect made with their own words. Finally Burrows 
summed up his case: 

"The distinguished gentleman from Kentucky 
(Mr. Blackburn)," he said, "the acknowledged 
leader of at least the Southern wing of the Democratic 
Party of this House, took occasion to say in his recent 
speech in this Hall that 'this side of the Chamber,' 
alluding to the Democratic majority, 'never means to 
yield or surrender until this Congress shall have died 
by virtue of its limitation.' I have given his exact 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 183 

words. That event cannot happen until the 4th of 
March, 1881. 

"And so the order is promulgated from the Federal 
Capitol, in the face of this Nation, by an ex-Confed- 
erate soldier, to prosecute the siege until this Repub- 
lic, which he and his co-conspirators could not des- 
troy by the sword, shall be reduced by starvation. 
And no sooner is the order given than the whole 
Democratic Party, North and South, leap into the 
trenches at the rallying cry of their chosen leader, 
'He who dallies is a dastard, and he who doubts is 
damned.' Thus is the siege begun, thus is it prose- 
cuted. And with an air of defiance, smacking a little 
of Southern domination, we are told that 'the issue is 
laid down, the gage of battle is delivered; lift it when 
you please.' Be it so, and be this my answer: that 
it is our supremest pleasure to lift it now and here, 
and we are prepared to make good the appeal. 

"We accept the challenge you now present in no 
spirit of boastful arrogance, but with an unflinching 
purpose and a sublime courage, awaiting the issue 
with the utmost confidence and composure. It is not 
the first time we have encountered a Solid South con- 
spiring against the life of the Republic; and although 
your forces may be somewhat augmented by your 
Northern allies, yet I see nothing in the increased 
array to cause a heart to faint or a cheek to blanch. 



i84 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

As you failed then you will fail now. As you could 
not kill, you cannot starve. Did it ever occur to you, 
gentlemen, that although you should withhold all 
supplies for the support of the Government that pos- 
sibly it might yet survive? Did it ever occur to you 
that although you should protract this siege until this 
Congress shall have died by virtue of its limitation, 
that possibly there would be no necessity for sur- 
render? Withhold support from the Executive, are 
you quite sure there will be no President? Refuse 
to feed the army, are you entirely certain there will 
be no troops? Deny to your navy the means to keep 
it afloat, are you certain you will force it to anchor? 
Withhold support from the judiciary, is it clear there 
will be no courts? Refuse the needed supplies for 
maintaining the legislative branch of the Government, 
are you confident there will be no Congress? Why, 
sir, you are as impotent to overthrow the Government 
by starvation as you were to annihilate it by the sword. 
You may distress, but you cannot destroy. For, let 
me tell you, when that time comes the same loyal peo- 
ple from the same loyal States who took their lives in 
their hands, and went forth to do battle for the defense 
of the Republic, enduring the weary march, the pro- 
tracted siege, the smoking hell of battle, and the more 
horrible hell of Southern prison-pens, until from the 
dark waves of rebellion they bore upon broken arm 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 185 

and lacerated breast the bleeding form of the Repub- 
Hc, and planted her feet upon the immutable rock of 
constitutional government and civil liberty — I say 
from the same States thirty millions of people, ani- 
mated by the same patriotism, will, when you attempt 
to starve this Republic, fly to her side at the first cry 
of her distress, and there they will stand in ceaseless 
vigil, not with sword, but with sustenance; not with 
the implements of war, but with unmeasured wealth; 
not with shotted cannon, but with unlocked coffers; 
not with bandages, but with bounty; and, bending 
over her prostrate form, will they succor and sustain 
her, ministering to her necessities, until, in the full- 
ness of time, they can wrench from her throat the 
cowardly hands that clutch it ; and then, thrilled with 
a new life, will she spring to her feet, and the very 
altar you builded for her immolation shall become a 
throne upon which she shall stand, in the majesty of 
her power, re-sceptered and re-crowned, goddess of 
nations." 

An excellent picture of the scene is given in the 
contemporary press: "If the speech of McKinley 
stirred up the Confederate animals, that of Burrows 
lashed them into passionate fury. The countenances 
of the Confederates while undergoing this terrible 
ordeal were a curious study. They were red with 
anger, distorted by muscular efforts to hold in check 



i86 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

tempestuous passions, and twisted by cynical grim- 
aces of pent-up madness. Only three or four inter- 
ruptions of the speaker were attempted, the manner 
of his refusal to be interrupted discouraging a repeti- 
tion of them. Only two or three times was the close 
attention of the House broken by applause, but when 
he sat down the whole Left broke out in enthusiasm, 
and the new-found champion in debate was warmly 
congratulated. Nearly at the same time a number 
of wrathful members of the Right tried to get the 
floor for personal explanation, and another scene of 
the wildest excitement ensued, at the height of which 
again were seen the two long arms and clenched fists 
of that untamed Kentuckian (Blackburn), bran- 
dished furiously in the manner of punching the whole 
opposite side of the Chamber. The man accom- 
panied his bellicose gesticulations with perhaps 
equally furious words, but what they were no one 
could hear in the confusion of tongues and the tor- 
nado of laughter which so ridiculous a spectacle pro- 
voked." 

The Army Appropriation Bill was finally passed 
without its rider, and from this time on Burrows' 
local reputation as a speaker became National. 

In 1880 Burrows was reelected to the Forty-sev- 
enth Congress over Orlando W. Powers, who later 
had a meteoric career in Utah. His campaign for 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 187 
reelection was really a stumping tour for Garfield 
and Arthur, and wherever Burrows went he made 
votes for the entire ticket. The success of his earher 
campaign speeches outside his own State made him 
much in demand from his Party leaders, and he was 
called into Wisconsin and Indiana, into Maine and 
Vermont. In one of his Eastern speeches Burrows 
made reference to Hancock's famous utterance, "The 
tariff is a local issue." Burrows had been stating his 
views as to the Tariff question, and in conclusion re- 
marked, "At least that is the way I look at it; but I 
will go home and ask my constituents how they look 
at it!" 

The Republican platform in this campaign was for 
high tariff, equal rights for negroes, for the restriction 
of Chinese immigration, and denounced the Solid 
South; while against this the Democrats placed Han- 
cock and English, calling for home rule, honest 
money, tariff for revenue only, and the restoration of 
American commerce, denouncing the "fraud" by 
which Hayes had been made President, and the con- 
tinued use of Federal troops at the polls. The 
Greenbackers made a slight show, but in no way af- 
fected the result. From a Republican standpoint, 
the only serious aspect of the election was the abso- 
lute Democratic consolidation of the electoral vote of 
the South. 



i88 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

Burrows was present at Garfield's inauguration and 
for the first time saw a President inducted into office. 
The Forty-seventh Congress was barely again Repub- 
lican, the Lower House having a majority of one and 
the Senate being tied. This slender advantage was 
distinctly favorable to public morality, as no member 
of either Party could afford to take chances with his 
constituents. Burrows was a member of the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations and Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Territories, and had attained sufficient 
prominence at the beginning of the session to aspire 
to the Speakership. Most prominent among the 
other candidates for this position were "Tom" Reed, 
of Maine, Frank Hiscock, of New York, John A. 
Kasson, of Iowa, and J. W. Keifer, of Ohio, the last- 
named candidate finally securing the coveted honor. 
There were many of Burrows' best friends in the 
House, however, who considered even his candidacy 
as a mistake from a Party standpoint: Garfield had 
been elevated to the Presidency, Blaine had become 
Secretary of State, Frye and Conger had gone from 
the House to the Senate, which left Burrows and Can- 
non as the real leaders of the Party in the Lower 
House, and many felt that Burrows was too eloquent 
an orator to be taken off the floor. His qualifications 
for the position, however, were demonstrated during 
the session when he was made the Speaker pro tern., 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 189 

and conducted the affairs of the House during 
Keifer's absence with rare tact and acknowledged par- 
hamentary abihty. 

A fellow- Congressman once said of Burrows: 
"He never takes part in debate unless he knows his 
subject thoroughly and has something to contribute 
to the general discussion. At no time, however, is 
Burrows caught napping. When apparently not 
personally interested in a measure, he suddenly 'bobs 
up' with some parliamentary question which is of in- 
estimable value to his Party." 

An instance of this may be cited: This Forty- 
seventh Congress was famous for filibustering, and 
when, on one occasion, the majority of Congress de- 
termined to discipline the Democrats who had ob- 
structed legislation for a week or more, Carlisle, of 
Kentucky, in defense quoted from a speech made by 
Garfield in the Forty-fifth Congress in reference to 
the rights of the minority. The quotation was most 
effective, and called forth delighted Democratic ap- 
plause, but before the echoes had died away Burrows 
arose and requested Carlisle to read the balance of 
Garfield's speech. This Carlisle declined to do, so 
Burrows proceeded to read it for him, showing that 
Garfield really denounced in the most unequivocal 
manner, as revolutionary, filibustering in any form 
which prevented the consideration of any proposition. 



190 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

The Democratic joy was quickly turned to chagrin. 

The sanctity of the ballot box of the South was not 
yet respected, and the Lowe-Wheeler election contest 
brought Burrows into the discussion as a revival of his 
earlier fight on the security of elections. Here, how- 
ever, he applied himself not to the specific case but to 
the basic principles upon which it rested. "When 
any man," he said, "whoever he may be, steals to the 
ballot box, where reposes the defenseless offering of 
a Nation's sovereign power, and takes its life, he is 
an assassin whose crime cannot be expiated. This 
Republic can withstand the shock of revolution; it 
can overcome invasion of a foreign foe ; in can endure 
the murder of its executive head; but it cannot long 
survive the assassination of its sovereign will." 

Later, referring to this subject in a campaign 
speech, he made telling use of facts which had come 
to light: 

"At Hope Engine polHng house, in the city of 
Charleston," Burrows said, "the poll list kept by the 
Democratic managers of the election, the list kept 
by the Democratic United States Supervisor, and the 
list kept by the Republican United States Supervisor, 
substantially agreed. One of them said that 12 18 
men had voted, the other said that 12 14 had voted; 
this was the only difference between them. Taking 
the name of every voter as he deposited his ballot. 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 191 

the list only differed four names. Either 1214 or 
1218 men had voted. Now, after every vote had 
been cast, you would expect to find in that box either 
1214 or 1218 ballots; but at sundown, when the 
proclamation was made that the poll had closed, the 
box was opened, the ballots put upon the table and 
counted, and there were found to be just 2289 votes. 
It was not much of a day for voting either. Just 
1071 more votes in the box than there were voters 
all told! The Democratic Party of this Nation de- 
clared, 'You shall not exercise your right to inquire 
into that practice.' Another peculiar thing about 
the count, or about the ballots, was this: that of the 
2289 votes in the box, 1683 were straight Demo- 
cratic ballots. This was 465 more Democratic votes 
in the ballot box than there were voters in the polling 
place. Yet the Democratic Party said, 'You shall 
not inquire into this matter.' They said, 'We will 
do the fair thing, and we will draw out the excess to 
show the people that we take no unfair advantage.' 
So they blindfolded a Democrat and told him to draw. 
That was not fair. What ought to have been done in 
that case was to paralyze the Democrat so that he 
could not feel, as one of the ballots was wider than 
the other. But, to make a show of honesty, they 
bhndfolded him, and then allowed him to draw out 
the ballots. When put on the stand, he testified that 



192 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

he drew out every Republican ballot except two. 
They asked him why he did not draw those out, and 
he said he could not find them. Yet the National 
Democratic Party declares, 'You shall not inquire 
into such a case, you shall not consider it.' " 

When Burrows referred to "the murder of the 
Repubhc's executive head," he had in mind the recent 
tragedy of Garfield's assassination. His relations 
with the Ohio statesman had ripened into the closest 
friendship during the years they were together in the 
House, and Garfield's death was a personal blow 
from which he was slow to recover. 

The first Bill which Burrows personally brought to 
the attention of the House was that to prevent patent 
rights extortion, which was of particular importance 
to the farmers. There existed at this time a well- 
organized system of blackmail whereby innocent pur- 
chasers of patented articles throughout the Western 
States were subjected to damage suits brought by 
parties whose claims to the patents were never estab- 
lished. A farmer would purchase barbed wire, 
driven-well cases, and other farm necessities from 
traveling salesmen, and later, agents of the so-called 
owners of the patent rights would appear, demanding 
back royalties. In the majority of cases the farmers 
were unable successfully to defend what they be- 
lieved to be their rights, and were forced to submit 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 193 

to unwarranted levies. The Burrows' Bill for their 
protection was passed, and proved of great value to 
the agricultural interests of the country. 

It was, however, the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Bill 
which most attracted Burrows' interest, and it was in 
this session that he sounded the first note of construc- 
tive antagonism to Mormonism which culminated in 
his masterly handling of the famous Smoot case in 
the Senate many years later. ^ The discussion 
started on a question as to the legal right of Campbell, 
of Utah, to take his seat in the House with the creden- 
tials which he presented ; but Burrows saw an oppor- 
tunity to strike Mormonism a decisive blow, and he 
was not slow to follow up his advantage. He intro- 
duced a Bill providing that no man guilty of bigamy 
or polygamy should be eligible to a seat in the House. 
This Bill was not popular from a Democratic stand- 
point, and the Democrats had no idea of permitting it 
to pass. Burrows, however, was more than a match 
for them. On the first Monday of each month, after 
the call of States and Territories for the introduction 
of Bills had been concluded, an opportunity was 
offered in the House for individual members to ask 
the passage of their favorite measures under the sus- 
pension of the rules. Immediately after the call, 
Burrows arose to move a suspension of the rules for 

1 See Volume II, Chapter V. 



194 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

the purpose of passing his Anti-Polygamy Bill. The 
House had apparently forgotten that this was suspen- 
sion day, and several members exclaimed that the 
Bill could not be passed except by unanimous con- 
sent. Availing himself of this lack of watchfulness, 
Burrows moved a suspension of the rules. His mo- 
tion was seconded by more than the required majority, 
and this being carried by almost a unanimous vote, 
the Bill was declared passed in less than five minutes. 
Burrows did not even make his fifteen minute speech 
on the Bill, fearing that if he did so he would arouse 
the House, and incur an opposition which might be 
disastrous. Bragg, of Wisconsin, was waiting until 
the vote should be taken to suspend the rules, it then 
being his intention to offer an amendment as the basis 
of filibustering. To his chagrin, however, Bragg was 
informed by the Speaker that he was too late, — the 
passage of the motion to suspend the rules in the form 
it was put had also passed the Bill. Randall, Cox, 
and Springer all happened to be out of the Chamber 
at this time or it might not have been so easy to catch 
the Democrats in a parliamentary blunder, but the 
Republicans were not slow to recognize in Burrows' 
clever tactics the work of a parliamentarian of the 
first order. Schuyler Colfax telegraphed Burrows 
just after this incident, "Congratulations. You hit 
the nail on the head. Hammer it home." 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 195 

In 1881 Burrows was honored by being invited to 
deliver the Decoration Day address at Gettysburg, 
where seventeen years earher Lincoln had spoken his 
immortal words. It was an address in keeping with 
the high standards established by his predecessors, 
scholarly in its conception, appropriate in its nature, 
and eloquent in its tribute. In closing he said : 

"Upon these headstones, the white leaves of an 
ever-open volume, are recorded the names and deeds 
of those who perished on this sanguinary field. 
These records will fade and crumble into decay, yet 
so long as constitutional government has a champion, 
the Union an advocate, Hberty a friend, — so long 
shall the memory of their achievements be preserved 
to inspire and bless mankind." 

Another admirable example of Burrows' eloquence 
is found in his address this same year in Milwaukee 
on the occasion of the opening of the Industrial Ex- 
position, when he said, referring to the Pantheon 
which was that day opened: 

"Dedicate it to Agriculture, for she has subdued 
your broad acres, billowed them with harvests bear- 
ing plenty to your hearthstones and treasures to your 
coffers.' 

"Dedicate it to Commerce, for she gathers the 
riches of every clime, and lays them in royal munifi- 
cence at your feet. 



196 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

"Dedicate it to Manufactures, for with cunning 
hand she ministers in tireless vigilance to the comfort 
and necessities of mankind. 

"Dedicate it to Science, for, in the language of 
Macaulay, 'It has lengthened life; it has mitigated 
pain; it has extinguished diseases; it has increased 
the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to 
the mariner; it has furnished new arms to the warrior; 
it has spanned great rivers and estuaries with bridges 
of form unknown to our fathers; it has guided the 
thunderbolt harmlessly from heaven to earth; it has 
lighted up the night with the splendor of the day; it 
has extended the range of human vision ; it has multi- 
plied the power of the human muscles; it has accel- 
erated motion; it has annihilated distance; it has 
facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly 
offices, all despatch of business; it has enabled man 
to descend to the depths of the sea, to soar into the 
air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of 
the earth, to traverse the land in cars and cross the 
ocean in ships. These are but a part of its fruits, 
and of its first fruits; for it is a philosophy which 
never rests, which has never attained, which is never 
perfect ; its law is progress. A point which was yes- 
terday invisible is its goal today, and will be its start- 
ing point tomorrow.' 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 197 

"Dedicate it to Art, for she is immortal. 'When I 
think,' said an old monk, who was accustomed to 
show the paintings on the walls of his monastery, 
'how men come generation after generation to see 
these pictures, and how they pass away but these re- 
main, I sometimes think that these are the reahties, 
and we are the shadows.' 

"Dedicate it to Music, for her voice can arouse the 
slumbering energies of the Nation, still the tempests 
in the human breast, and break to mortal ear the very 
harmonies of heaven. 

"Dedicate it to the Genius of Invention, for it has 
lifted the burdens from the back of toil, wiped the 
sweat from the brow of labor, and gladdened the 
whole earth with the trophies of its triumphs. 

"And, finally, dedicate it to the lofty spirit of 
Progress, whose shibboleth is borne on your great 
seal of State, 'Forward and forever.' " 

At the close of the Forty-seventh Congress Burrows 
again, for a single term, dropped out of the House of 
Representatives. He had been unanimously renomi- 
nated for the Forty-eighth Congress, but the unpopu- 
larity of his Party, discontent over Federal patronage, 
the candidacy on the Union ticket of the brilliant 
Yaple, combined with some curious local conditions 
accomplished his defeat. 



198 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

Burrows probably did not recognize that this sec- 
ond temporary setback in his pohtical career was an- 
other blessing in disguise. From a personal stand- 
point, it gave him opportunity to reflect both upon 
himself and upon the Party of which he now knew 
himself to be an integral factor. It gave him oppor- 
tunity to get back again into the heart of his constitu- 
ency, and to learn as a layman what the people really 
thought and really felt. There is an advantage 
which comes from continuous service, and this advan- 
tage was to come to Burrows later ; but it is also bene- 
ficial, particularly in the early part of any man's 
career, to have the opportunity offered him to con- 
sider himself and his actions from an impersonal 
standpoint and away from actual activity. Too often 
a man comes too close to his work, and thus fails to 
attain the best of which he is capable. Success is 
often taken as a measure of approval, and the content- 
ment which comes with this too often prevents the 
highest development because of the absence of imme- 
diate necessity of effort. 

If Burrows had not been defeated in 1881 he would 
have entered the Blaine campaign as a part of the 
machine rather than as a contestant for election, and 
the lessons he learned at this crisis were of inestima- 
ble value to his later work. If he had not been de- 
feated he would not have learned how highly his 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 199 

Party had already come to think of him, as evidenced 
by the efforts made by influential statesmen to reward 
him for his past services with some pubUc office. He 
was suggested and urged for Postmaster General, as 
Second Comptroller of the Treasury, as First Assist- 
ant Secretary of the Treasury, and as Chief Justice or 
Governor of Dakota. He permitted no one of these 
suggestions, however, to come to a head, and when 
President Arthur appointed him Solicitor of the 
Treasury, and even went so far as to forward to him 
the official appointment, he steadfastly declined to 
accept any responsibility which would stand in the 
way of his return to the House of Representatives. 
His confidence that this was to be his life work was no 
less than when ten years earlier he had seen himself 
temporarily set aside. 

So, after taking a brief vacation in Dakota, he re- 
turned to Kalamazoo and to the practice of his profes- 
sion, reestablishing the old law firm of Severens & 
Burrows which had been dissolved when he entered 
Congress in 1872. In the meantime, Mr. Severens 
had added largely to his legal attainments by his 
experience on the bench, and the new firm immedi- 
ately took its position as one of the strongest in the 
State. 

It is interesting to compare Burrows' speeches in 
his own campaign for reelection and in behalf of 



200 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

Blaine's candidacy for President with those of his 
earher campaigns. We have already noted how the 
ornate, grandiloquent style of the youthful orator 
passed away and settled upon a more permanent 
basis ; the third epoch begins with this period. What 
may be called the second epoch showed Burrows as a 
skilful campaigner, knowing his audiences and sway- 
ing them by his combination of eloquence and aca- 
demic presentation of the facts. Now, however, we 
see the academician turned into the simple exponent, 
leading his audiences as well as persuading, and show- 
ing them almost in words of one syllable the merits 
of his cause. Too often we find an orator influenced 
by his audience ; too often he strives for applause by 
advocating theories which he finds are popular: "If 
you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue," is 
Kipling's way of putting it. Burrows always domi- 
nated his hearers, and scrupulously adhered to his 
basic principles. 

The clarity and simplicity of his diction, however, 
did not detract from his reputation for eloquence. 
It simply meant that he had become more versatile 
and more accomplished in making his speeches fit 
their respective audiences. When it came to his 
Memorial Address, delivered on the occasion of the 
death of General Grant, he was again the orator, with 
the same wonderful vocabulary at his command, the 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 201 
same magnetic presence, the same effective voice, the 
same compelHng style: 

"He goes to his grave," Burrows said, "stripped of 
the very sword with which he defended his country 
that he might make reparation for the wrongs of 
others. But he sleeps well. Would that he could 
have been accorded life's allotted span, but he lived 
long enough to see his country happily reunited in 
the bonds of enduring peace. He lived long enough 
to see the banner of the Republic everywhere re- 
spected, beneath which there breathed no master and 
crouched no slave. He lived long enough to see the 
sunlight of truth break through and dispel the mists 
that sometimes threatened to envelop his fair name. 
He lived long enough to be assured of the undying 
gratitude of the Republic and the immortality of his 
fame. He lived long enough to see the bitterness 
engendered by our civil strife so far assuaged that 
those who had been his foes in war were his friends 
in peace. And today, as Union and Confederate 
Generals unite with a common sorrow in bearing his 
body to its final resting-place, methinks if he could 
speak from the beyond he would again exclaim, 'Let 
us have Peace.' And so the great soul of this un- 
crowned king, with the benediction of all the people, 
has passed through the earthly dawn into the dawn 
eternal." 



202 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

Burrows was a delegate-at-large to the National 
Republican Convention of 1884, and had the satis- 
faction of seeing Blaine, his friend and Party idol, at 
last nominated for the Presidency. He had shared 
Blaine's disappointment over his defeat in the Con- 
vention of 1876; he had been torn by the tempestuous 
scenes of the Convention of 1880, when Conkling, 
supporting Grant for a third term, had locked horns 
with the Blaine forces until Garfield was nominated 
as a compromise candidate. Garfield was a more 
intimate friend than Blaine, but Burrows knew, as did 
all the world, that Blaine was better fitted by nature 
and by experience for the responsibilities of the high 
office. In 1884, however. Fate seemed to relent, and 
the Maine statesman was at last given the banner of 
the Party which he had so long and so efficiently 
served. 

Burrows threw himself with undisguised joy into 
the campaign. After stumping the State of Iowa 
with Benjamin Harrison, he made a two weeks' can- 
vass with Blaine in the nominee's own State, later 
speaking throughout New York, and closing the cam- 
paign in Michigan. The Party platform was loosely 
constructed, including Protection, the control of cor- 
porations through the strict regulation of Inter-state 
Commerce, and Civil Service Reform, and the Demo- 
crats were still charged with ballot frauds in the 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 203 
South. Owing to the confused estimate of Blaine's 
character, held even by Republicans, as a result of 
the personal attacks made upon him, and to the un- 
usual personal popularity of Cleveland, the campaign 
speakers confined themselves closely to the National 
problems which each espoused. The fact that the 
Democrats skilfully evaded the whole question of Pro- 
tection in their platform marked a significant land- 
mark in the history of that Party. 

Burrows' attack was made principally against this 
seemingly weakest point in their armor. He was 
particularly successful in pointing out the tortuous 
course pursued by the Democratic Party, showing 
how it had doubled on itself, and was at that moment 
on a "straddle." Although varied in its presenta- 
tion and emphasized more in some speeches than in 
others, the basis of his remarks on this point may be 
found in an earlier speech made before Congress, 
which tersely summarizes the gymnastics to which he 
referred. In this speech he says: 

"It is one of the peculiarities of modern Democ- 
racy that the principles it avowed yesterday it repudi- 
ates today. The cause it espouses today it will 
abandon tomorrow. Indeed, it may well be ques- 
tioned whether as a Party it has any fixed and abiding 
convictions. Its history for the last twenty-five years 
is a history of vacillation, insincerity, and folly. In 



204 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

1872 it demanded a speedy return to specie pay- 
ments; in 1876 it denounced the Resumption Act 
and demanded its repeal. In 1868 it demanded the 
payment of the interest-bearing obhgations of the 
Government in irredeemable paper; in 1872 it de- 
nounced repudiation in every form and guise. In 
1868 it demanded the abolition of all instrumentali- 
ties designed to secure negro supremacy; in 1872 it 
recognized the equality of all men before the law, of 
whatever race or color. From i860 to 1865 it 
wielded its Party power to obstruct the successful 
prosecution of the war for the Union; in 1882 it 
proclaimed itself the chief instrument in accomplish- 
ing its successful results. In 1868 it publicly 
thanked Andrew Johnson for exercising the veto 
power in resisting the aggressions of Congress; in 
1880 it declared that the use of the veto power in- 
sults the people and imperils their institutions. In 
i860 it drove labor to the shambles and sold it at 
public auction; in 1880 it declared itself the friend 
of the laboring-men. In 1868 it was for a Democrat 
for President; in 1872 it enlisted under the banner 
of a Republican. In war it followed the leadership 
of a peace general; in peace it supported a general 
who was for war. One of your own number, the dis- 
tinguished gentleman from Texas, Mr. Upson, has 
fitly characterized the course of the Democratic Party 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 205 

as follows: 'It can succeed,' he says — 'if the Demo- 
cratic Party will be true to its time-honored princi- 
ples, true to itself, shake off its spell of vacillation 
and lethargy, cease its cowardly trimming at every 
doubting whisper, quit dodging at every flitting 
shadow, stop tweedling every political crank, and 
drag itself from the meshes of that drag-net policy 
thrown out to catch the followers of every new-fangled 
ism and popular whim.' And so the Democratic 
Party, for a quarter of a century, without chart or 
compass, has been cruising in every sea, intent upon 
and anxious only to avail itself of any breeze from 
any quarter that might fill its sails and carry it into 
political power. I thank God that I belong to a 
Party that in storm or sunshine has kept steadily on 
its course." 

On the stump, he told this anecdote with telling 
effect: "The Democratic Party as a Party has no 
settled convictions on this subject of finance. They 
are soft money in one State, and hard money in an- 
other; soft one day and hard another. They are like 
the fellow who had a horse which he recommended 
as a hunter. A stranger came along and noticed 
that once in a while his horse would drop down, and 
he said, 'What is the matter with the horse?' The 
fellow said, 'That is a trick; there is deer around. 
He is a setter, and when he smells deer around he 



206 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1879 

will always do that. He is a very valuable horse.' 
The stranger said, 'How will you trade?' and he 
bought the horse and started out with it, and he came 
along to the middle of a stream and the horse dropped. 
With that he was a little disgusted, and went back 
and said that he had been cheated. 'What is the 
matter?' asked the seller; 'didn't he drop?' 'Yes, 
he did; right in the midst of a stream, and I came 
near getting drowned.' 'Well,' said the former, 'I 
forgot to tell you, that horse is just as good for trout 
as he is for deer.' So the Democratic Party is just 
as good for soft money as it is for hard money." 

The results of his campaign work were strongly 
apparent in the State elections. He was called by 
Cameron to Pennsylvania and by Colfax to Indiana. 
"You have just stolen the hearts of our people," Col- 
fax wrote, "and they rank you as even more effective 
than IngersoU." "Your magnificent speech," wrote 
M. C. Dunning from Iowa, "turned the scale. . . . 
That speech is still the favorite topic among Repub- 
licans here, and is regarded as the most brilhant and 
most effective ever delivered in Mitchell County." 

His own victory scarcely made up to Burrows for 
the keenness of his disappointment over the defeat of 
his leader, although Blaine himself had never been 
sanguine of success from the time he was first nomi- 
nated in 1876. After the Cincinnati Convention 



1885] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 207 
Blaine had exclaimed: "I am the Henry Clay of 
the Republican Party, — I can never be President"; 
and the strange fatality which followed him in thwart- 
ing this one great desire of his life culminated in this 
defeat. 

It was at this time that Ingersoll sent Burrows the 
following amusing comments on recent events: 

From Robert G. Ingersoll 

Washington, D. C, Dec. SO, '84 

My dear Burrows: 

After congratulating you on your election, and 
after my best regards to Mrs. Burrows, I will say. 
. . . How is the world going? What do you think 
of the late alleged election? What is your opinion 
of the preacher in politics? What do you think of 
Balaam's ass and Blaine's doctor of divinity? 

This is a great world, brother Burrows, and many 
things are foretold that never happen, and some 
things come to pass without being foretold. . . . 



CHAPTER VII 
Later Years in the Lower House. 1885-1890 

WITH his election to the Forty-ninth Congress, 
Burrows began a continuous service of 
twenty-seven years in the Lower and Upper branches. 
He found a substantial Democratic majority in the 
House and a Republican Senate, which formed a com- 
bination hostile to important legislation. Civil Serv- 
ice Reform was the shibboleth of the period, owing to 
the tremendous expansion of the "spoils system" 
which had culminated in the murder of President 
Garfield. Cleveland himself recognized the temper 
of the people, and for the first time in over fifty years 
the incoming President made no radical sweep in the 
non-political offices. The hope which this engen- 
dered in the hearts of the advocates of Civil Service 
Reform was, however, soon dispelled, as Cleveland 
found himself absolutely unable to prevent his Cab- 
inet officers from yielding to the ravenous demands of 
the hungry Democratic office seekers, who were now 
in a position to appropriate the spoils of victory. 

During the first session of this Congress the ques- 
tion of the Presidential succession was settled, this 
208 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 209 

action being impelled by the death of vice-President 
Hendricks. A Tariff Bill was prepared, but as 
there was no possibility of passing it through the 
Republican Senate it was never urged for serious 
consideration. Cleveland cooperated earnestly in 
the organization of the Civil Service Commission, but, 
as we shall see later, the sincerity of his efforts in 
this direction was more than nullified by the lack of 
cooperation on the part of other influential leaders of 
his Party. 

Although hopelessly in the minority. Burrows was 
heard on all the important measures which came up 
during the two sessions. One of these was a Bill 
submitted for the relief of Major-General Fitz-John 
Porter, which in effect was an effort to reverse the 
judgment of the court-martial which dismissed Gen- 
eral Porter from the service of the United States in 
January, 1863, on the ground of "disobedience of 
the lawful commands of his superior officer" and 
"misbehavior in the face of the enemy." The Bill 
had passed the Forty-eighth Congress, but was vetoed 
by President Arthur. Burrows approached the sub- 
ject first from a judicial aspect, questioning the 
authority of Congress to take upon itself the power 
to set aside, modify, or nullify the sentence of a gen- 
eral court-martial. He presented an impressive 
array of opinions from legal authorities which carried 



210 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

much weight; and finally summed up his case with 
the old-time fire which could only burst from the 
Northern soldier in contemplating what he consid- 
ered to be nothing less than Southern treachery. 
The deep-rooted, war-time antagonisms were still 
alive in Burrows' breast, even though now under full 
control. 

"Let me say to you, gentlemen," he said — "let me 
say to the Democratic Party North and South, — 
South in the lead, the North following, that if by the 
force of numbers you do this thing the country will 
not hold you guiltless. The people whom Fitz-John 
Porter betrayed are content with the verdict. Why 
not let it stand? Why seek to reverse it? Do you 
question the capacity or integrity of the court? Fitz- 
John Porter was tried and convicted by a mihtary 
tribunal composed of gentlemen of exalted character 
and acknowledged ability. Six of the nine generals 
. . . were graduates of the Military Academy, famil- 
iar with all the details and discipline of military life. 
Generals Prentiss and Slough were men of high civil 
and military renown, while General Garfield, for 
brilliant achievements in the field and forum, is as- 
signed a foremost place in the Nation's regard. 

"Such was the high character of the tribunal 
which convicted Fitz-John Porter. It sat where the 
sound of the battle's thunder had been heard, and 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 211 

summoned into its presence the witnesses, chief and 
subahern, from that field of carnage and treachery. 
It sat with open doors. The accused was present in 
person and by eminent counsel, among whom was the 
Hon. Reverdy Johnson. It prosecuted the investiga- 
tion for forty-five days; examined eighteen persons 
on the part of the Government and twenty-two on 
behalf of the accused, — forty witness in all. . . . 
Judge Holt submitted the case without argument. 
The accused was heard at length, after which the 
court found Fitz-John Porter guilty of disobedience 
of the lawful commands of his superior officer and 
misbehavior in the face of the enemy; and thereupon 
sentenced him to be dismissed from the military serv- 
ice of the United States, and forever disqualified from 
holding any office of profit or trust under the Govern- 
ment thereof. The findings and sentence of the 
court were approved by Abraham Lincoln, whose 
name has become a synonym of justice and hon- 
esty. 

"But it has been said that injustice was done Fitz- 
John Porter, and that the judgment of the court was 
swayed by the passions and prejudices of the hour. 
It is a notorious fact that a majority of that court wete 
Porter's personal friends, none his enemies. He 
himself, upon his arraignment, declared himself con- 
tent with the detail. The sentence of the court gives 



212 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [188^ 

assurance of its friendship, for if Fitz-John Porter 
was guilty of one-half with which he was charged he 
ought to have paid the forfeit of his hfe. The blood 
that courses in his veins is no richer than that which 
warms the heart of the humblest subaltern, and if a 
private soldier had been guilty of what Fitz-John 
Porter was convicted he would have been shot on the 
field. 

"But do you come here for an impartial tribunal? 
Is there no bias in this panel? At the risk of being 
charged with reviving the memories of the past, may I 
inquire if there are not some gentlemen in this array 
whose cause was directly benefited by Porter's treach- 
ery, and if such, do you think you are or can be im- 
partial judges? Do you believe the betrayer of a 
public trust should be tried by the parties who prof- 
ited by the treachery? Is that your idea of an im- 
partial verdict? What a travesty this is upon jus- 
tice ! The beneficiaries of Porter's crime gravely sit 
in judgment to condemn Lincoln and Garfield, and 
acquit Porter! That, too, after twenty-three years, 
nearly a quarter of a century, has sealed the lips of 
witnesses and silenced the voice of the court. Why 
not let this judgment stand? Why seek to reverse 
it? 

"You who are so sensitive about reviving the mem- 
ories of the past, in the name of peace why not let 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 213 
this rest ? I fear there is but one explanation. Not 
long since it was proclaimed in this Hall that the 
'South would not be content until it had wiped from 
the statute-book all the war legislation of Abraham 
Lincoln.' What was then regarded as a harmless 
outburst of passion seems after all to have been a 
startling prophecy. The beginning of its fulfilment 
is at hand. Legislative enactment and solemn adju- 
dication are alike marked for destruction. Where 
the work is to end Heaven only knows. It looks as 
if nothing was secure, nothing settled, nothing 
exempt from this unholy purpose of demolition. 
But let me say to the majority of this House, and to 
the Democratic Party, that you are making a fearful 
mistake in signalizing your return to National control 
by impeaching the honesty of Abraham Lincoln and re- 
versing the judgment of James A. Garfield. Though 
their lips are sealed, be assured that the people who 
honored them and their works living will defend them 
dead. You may enter judgment against them here, 
but it will be indignantly reversed by the grand as- 
sizes of the people. I am conscious that we can do 
little else here than protest against the passage of 
this measure. In the name of the Constitution 
which it overrides, of the law which it wantonly vio- 
lates, of the good order and discipline of the army 
which it disturbs and destroys, and in the name of the 



214 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

unnumbered dead who fell a sacrifice to the treachery 
of Fitz-John Porter, I protest against it." 

The Post-office Appropriation Bill afforded Bur- 
rows an excellent opportunity to bring out the con- 
trast between the protestations of the Democratic 
Party in the matter of Civil Service Reform and the 
actual application of their alleged principles when the 
opportunity actually came to put them into operation. 
"If there has been any one thing in the last fifteen 
years," he said, "to which the Democratic Party 
seemed more ardently attached than any other it was 
reform in the Civil Service. In season and out of 
season, in public and in private, by speech and plat- 
form, it has coveted every occasion to make solemn 
protestation of its devotion to this new-found object 
of its idolatry. Its enthusiasm at times would brook 
no restraint. 

"Although Reform and the Democratic Party never 
had any personal acquaintance until 1872, when they 
met for the first time in a Liberal-Republican Conven- 
tion, yet from that hour there sprang up an attach- 
ment between them which has been absolutely 
phenomenal. Some slight conception of the warmth 
of its devotion at that time may be gathered from the 
following declaration preserved in its platform of 
1872: 

" 'The Civil Service of the Government has become 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 215 
a mere instrument of partisan tryanny and personal 
ambition, and an object of selfish greed. It is a 
scandal and reproach upon free institutions, and 
breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity 
of Repubhcan Government. We therefore regard a 
thorough reform of the Civil Service as one of the 
most pressing necessities of the hour; that honesty, 
capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claims 
to pubHc employment; that the offices of the Govern- 
ment cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and 
patronage, and that public station shall become again 
a post of honor.' * 

"In 1876 the Democratic Party renewed its vows 
of fidelity with such earnestness as to banish all 
thought of the possibility of betrayal, in the following 
language : 

" 'Reform is necessary in the Civil Service. Expe- 
rience proves that efficient, economical conduct of the 
Governmental business is not possible if its Civil 
Service be subject to change at every election, be a 
prize fought for at the ballot-box, be a brief reward 
for Party zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned for 
proved competency, and held for fidelity in the public 
employ; that the dispensing of patronage should 
neither be a tax upon the time of all our pubHc men, 
nor the instrument of their ambition.' ^ 

1 Democratic platform, Baltimore, Md., July, 1872. 

2 Democratic platform. Saint Louis, Mo., June 27, 1876. 



2i6 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [188^ 

"In 1880, its ardor had somewhat cooled, and was 
fast settHng down into respectful consideration, as the 
following declaration in its platform discloses : 'We 
pledge ourselves to a general and thorough reform of 
the Civil Service.' 

"In 1884, six words, compressed into one curt 
sentence, measured its waning regard: 'We favor 
honest Civil Service reform.' 

"But if the public mind had become somewhat 
distrustful of the sincerity of the Democratic Party in 
its professions touching reform in the Civil Service, it 
was fully reassured by Mr. Cleveland in his letter of 
acceptance, in which he said: 'The selection and 
retention of subordinates in Government employment 
shall depend upon their ascertained fitness and the 
value of their work. Public employment will be 
open to all who can demonstrate their fitness to enter 
it.' These are some of the professions with which 
the Democratic Party came up to the campaign of 
1884, and under which it was entrusted with National 
control. 

"In view of these utterances the people had a right 
to expect, and in many instances were undoubtedly 
deluded into the belief, that the Democratic Party 
would in good faith redeem its promises in this regard. 
That, in the language of the Democratic platform, 
'honesty, capacity, and fidelity' would be the only 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 217 
valid claims to public employment, and that, in the 
words of the President, 'the selection and retention of 
subordinates in the Government employment would 
depend upon their ascertained fitness.' Indeed, the 
Democratic Party and its nominee for the Presidency 
were so completely committed to the doctrine of 
reform in the Civil Service that there was no escape 
from the execution of the law in this regard but by 
public renunciation or secret evasion. The former 
step would have been commendable in the highest 
degree in contrast with that other course which this 
Administration seems determined to pursue. To 
have failed to execute the law would have been bad 
faith ; to pretend to execute it while secretly nulHfying 
it is not only bad faith but hypocrisy. 

"The first intimation of a plan by which the conse- 
quences of Democratic professions might be avoided 
came from Mr. Cleveland in December, 1884, after 
the service of the people at the ballot-box was no 
longer required, and nothing remained to complete 
his title to the Presidency save the formal declaration 
of the result of the election. Then it was that the 
President-elect, in a letter to Mr. Curtis,* pointed out 
the way by which the Democratic Party might escape 
from all its pledges to the people, and fill the public 
offices with the adherents of the Democratic Party in 

1 George William Curtis. 



2i8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [188^ 

utter disregard of the letter and spirit of the Civil 
Service law. I quote from that letter the follow- 
ing: 

" 'There is a class of Government positions which 
are not within the letter of Civil Service statute, but 
which are so disconnected with the policy of an 
Administration that removal therefrom of present 
incumbents, in my opinion, should not be made 
during the terms for which they were appointed solely 
on partisan grounds, and for the purpose of putting 
in their places those who are in political accord with 
the appointing power. But many now holding posi- 
tions have forfeited all just claim to retention, because 
they have used their places for Party purposes in dis- 
regard to their duty to the people, and because, 
instead of being decent public servants, they have 
proved themselves offensive partisans and unscrup- 
ulous manipulators of local Party management.' 

"The term 'offensive partisan' makes its appear- 
ance in this letter for the first time since the election, 
and opens a broad avenue for escape from Democratic 
pledges. In hoc signo vinces ! 

"The Postmaster-general was not slow to seize upon 
the suggestion of the President-elect, and before he 
had been in his office sixty days he issued one of the 
most remarkable letters ever emanating from the head 
of any Department under any Administration. This 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 219 

communication ^ is marked 'confidential,' and is 
signed officially by William F. Vilas, Postmaster- 
general. . . . 

"On the 4tli day of March, 1885, the President- 
elect in his inaugural address declared that 'the 
people demanded the apphcation of business princi- 
ples in public affairs,' and that 'Civil Service Reform 
should be in good faith enforced.' While these high- 
sounding words were ringing in the public ear, the 
Postmaster-general is writing a 'confidential' letter 
to Democratic Congressmen 'to get their cases ready,' 
and he thought 'from fifteen to twenty-five per cent, 
of fourth-class postmasters in Ohio might be removed 
within the next two months.' This is the 'application 
of business principles to public affairs.' While the 
echo of these words was yet ringing in the public ear, 
the Postmaster-general quietly whistles to his side the 
whole uncounted pack of hungry office-seekers, and 
sets them upon the track of honest officials with in- 
structions to hunt them down and hold them at bay 
until the Postmaster-general could take their official 
life. This is reform in the Civil Service! This is 
'doing business behind glass doors.' The whole his- 
tory of American politics discloses no parallel to 
this." 

iText of letter is given in full in the Congressional Record, March 

24, 1886. 



220 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

On May 18, 1886, Burrows spoke on the subject 
of Foreign Mail Service, pointing out a few of the 
many inconsistencies in the regulations which con- 
trolled the foreign service of the Post-office Depart- 
ment, and particularly urging that $400,000 extra 
be appropriated to enable the Postmaster-general to 
provide adequate service between the United States 
and Mexico, Central and South America. In view of 
our present interest in developing relations with 
South America, it is interesting to see how closely the 
position taken by Burrows thirty years ago parallels 
our present convictions. If his amendment had been 
adopted at that time who shall say how much farther 
advanced would be the commercial relations today 
between ourselves and these countries? Quoting 
from his speech; 

"To the New York and Brazilian line, the only line 
we have running to Brazil, we paid last year $4,210, 
and the distance run on a single trip was ^^1^4- miles, 
or in a round trip more than 1 0,000 miles. To Rio 
and return we paid this line the sum of $4,2 10 for the 
year, or $326 a trip, or about 3 cents a mile, while 
at the same time we paid for 246 miles of service from 
Tampa to Key West $23,600, or 46 cents a mile. 
Upon what principle of justice or of reason is this dis- 
tinction made? 

"The 'Red D hne,' the only line running from New 



iSgo] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 221 
York to Venezuela, the only steamship flying the 
American flag in that country, sailed to reach the ports 
of Venezuela 3,066 miles, in each round trip 6,132 
miles, and received $56.53 a trip, stopping at eight 
ports, and the owners of that line paid out more to 
dehver the mail at these eight ports than they received 
from the Government of the United States for carry- 
ing the mails. At the same time we paid a steam- 
ship company for carrying the mails from Norfolk to 
Baltimore, but 200 miles, the sum of $1 8,000 — more 
than 15 cents a mile! 

"To the New York and Cuban line, running from 
New York to Cuba, 1,174 miles, we paid a little over 
$2,600. That line made seventy-one trips, sailing 
a total distance of 166,608 miles. And how much 
did we pay a mile to that line? One cent and a half 
for carrying the United States mail. At the same 
time a steamer running from Norfolk to Cape Charles, 
38 miles of coastwise service, received $10,971, or 
over 39 cents a mile. A cent and a half a mile from 
New York to Cuba, l , 1 74 miles, and 40 cents a mile 
from Norfolk to Cape Charles, 38 miles! We paid 
the New Orleans and Central American line, running 
from New Orleans to Nicaragua, 1,065 miles' dis- 
tance, making fifteen trips, traveling in the year 
40,500 miles — ^we paid for that service, for carrying 
the United States mail, going to the post-office in the 



222 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

United States and getting the mail, taking it to the 
boat, and delivering it to the post-office in the foreign 
country, the insignificant sum of $24.50. It is pro- 
posed now to pay these lines a reasonable compensa- 
tion for carrying the foreign mails, and it is denomi- 
nated a subsidy ! . . . 

"Let us look now at the other side of the South 
American country. From San Francisco to Hong- 
kong, 6,080 miles distant, we paid $3,506 for last 
year's service, eighteen trips, each trip 12, 180 miles, 
the total distance sailed nearly 220,000 miles, and 
we paid one and one-half cents a mile for that foreign 
service. At the same time another boat starts from 
San Francisco and goes to Eureka, on the coast, only 
216 miles distant, and we paid that line $6,500. 
Why pay for a trip of 12,000 miles $195 and a trip of 
432 miles $125? . . . 

"We paid more for carrying the mails from San 
Francisco to Sacramento, 17 1 miles, to wit, $6,000, 
than we paid the American line from San Francisco 
to Hongkong, Panama, and to Mexico. We paid 
$6,000 more for carrying the mails from Tacoma to 
Port Townsend, a distance of 98 miles, than we paid 
the whole foreign Pacific mail service. We paid as 
much from Tacoma to Sitka, 1,441 miles, to wit, 
$47,700, for carrying the United States mails, as we 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 223 

paid all the American lines to all foreign ports across 
both oceans and to the South American countries. 
And yet no man charges that the compensation from 
Tacoma to Sitka is a subsidy. I have alluded to these 
facts for the purpose of showing how unjustly the law 
of sea and inland postage operates. It is not the 
fault of any executive officer. It is simply because 
the law declares that you shall pay to a foreign vessel 
only the sea postage, and to the American ship the 
sea and inland postage; and there is nothing under 
the sun in the amendment of the Senate but the mere 
saying to the Postmaster-general, 'You shall have the 
same authority to contract for the foreign service as 
you now have to contract for domestic service,' and 
makes an appropriation to carry such contracts into 
effect. . . . 

"We cannot and we must not lose sight of the 
advantage of connecting this country with the South 
American republics. The carrying of a single letter 
to Chili or to the Argentine Republic may lay the 
foundation of a trade of inestimable value, not to 
these steamship companies, but to all the American 
people. Our diversified industries are capable of 
giving employment to all our laboring people. The 
field and the factory, the forest and the mine, our 
facilities for employing labor, are simply boundless, 



224 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [188^ 

and yet today a million of our laboring people are out 
of employment, and the bloody hand of the com- 
munist is clutching at the throat of capital. 

"We might give employment to this labor if we 
would. But if we employ this labor, and light the 
fires of our furnaces and open the mines and set the 
looms in motion, where shall we dispose of the 
products? At our very door is the answer. We 
have the market at hand if we are wise enough to con- 
trol it. Within a stone's throw almost, right south of 
us, is the Repubhc of Mexico, with its twenty-seven 
States, with a government patterned after our own, 
with ten millions and a half of people. . . . 

"Who controls the trade of Mexico, lying right 
upon our border? Spain takes over twenty-six mil- 
lions of it, Germany over eighteen millions and a half, 
France nearly sixteen millions, while the United 
States controls less than ten millions; England takes 
nine millions, and the Central American countries two 
and a half millions. So that of this entire trade with 
Mexico the United States controls but a trifle over 
one-tenth, while nine-tenths of it is held by foreign 
countries. 

"Take Central America, with its five republics. 
Those five Central American republics have more 
trade with England by far — yes, double the trade — 
than they have with the United States, although they 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 225 
lie at our very doors, easily accessible from the ports 
of the Gulf States. Their principal imports are 
cotton goods. We could furnish every yard of cotton 
goods that the Central American countries need, but 
Great Britain in 1880 sold them 31,000,000 yards, 
while the United States sold them only 688,000 yards 
— a little over half a million. . . . 

"South America imports annually enormous quan- 
tities of coal. How much from the United States? 
None; she brings it from England. Yet our coal 
mines are running on half time or closed up altogether. 
Mexico and Central and South America consume 
annually about $100,000,000 worth of cotton goods. 
How much do they buy of Great Britain? Ninety- 
five per cent., and the other 5 per cent, we share in 
simply. There is no reason why we should not fur- 
nish all her cotton fabrics, and these constitute the 
wearing apparel of three-fourths of her people. . . . 

"To those South American countries we have two 
lines of steamers — only two. We have one line, the 
Red D line, running from New York to Venezuela, 
and another line running from New York and New- 
port News to Brazil. Outside of these lines there is 
not a single American steamer entering a port of the 
South American countries or flying an American flag. 
The Brazilian line has three steamers, every one of 
them American built; the Venezuelan line seven. 



226 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

all of American construction. We thus have ten 
steamers on two lines running to Venezuela and 
Brazil, the only two countries of all the South Ameri- 
can republics to which our steamers run. And for 
the mail service to these two countries we paid last 
year the miserable sum of $5,603.08. . . . The 
aggregate amount paid for carrying the mails to Cen- 
tral and South America was $15,136.16, about the 
same sum we paid from Louisville, Ky., to Evansville, 
Ind. This is the extent and amount of compensation 
paid American steamships for carrying our mails to 
Central and South America ; and if you want to reach 
any other country in South America today aside from 
Venezuela and Brazil you must take passage to Eng- 
land and under a foreign flag reach the Argentine 
Republic, her capital city of Buenos Aires, Uruguay, 
Chili, or any other of the great eastern or western 
republics of South America. . . . There is not a line 
running from the United States down the western 
shore of South America. Now and then, by a stray 
sailing vessel, American goods reach her ports, but 
they are shipped generally to Liverpool and Hamburg 
and carried under a foreign flag around the Horn. 
The Royal Mail Steamship Company and French line 
monopolize this entire trade, and do it not by being 
paid the sea and inland postage, but are aided by 
liberal compensation for carrying the mails. How 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 227 

easily the Pacific Mail Steamship Company could 
extend her line from Panama down the western coast, 
but the United States says to her, 'If you take that 
venture we will give you only the postage on the 
letters you carry, though these letters may lay the 
foundation for a great trade with the Republic of 
Peru.' . . . 

"We pay annually to foreign ships for carrying our 
mails $280,000. Why not do something for our 
own lines? Only $46,000 last year to our own 
steamship lines. We produce annually eight billions 
of manufactured goods, seven and a half billions of 
agricultural products; together, fifteen and a half 
billions, — and we need a market for our surplus 
products. Where shall we find it? It lies at our 
very door. It is amazing to me that when a proposi- 
tion is made to expend only $400,000 to existing 
lines connecting with Central and South America, 
with China and Japan, and to use another $400,000 
to extend these lines and put on new ones that may 
serve to connect with other countries and open the 
ports of the Atlantic and Gulf States to the commerce 
of the republics of South America — it is amazing, I 
say, that gentlemen will resist it on either side of the 
House. 

"What object is there in opening the Mississippi 
River at an expense of twenty, thirty, fifty millions of 



228 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [188^ 

dollars, and then permit the commerce she carries to 
be borne away under foreign flags? What states- 
manship is there in this? What sense is there in 
expending $450,000 on the harbor of Galveston to 
give an outlet for commerce, and then say to Ameri- 
can lines proposing to carry that commerce, 'We will 
pay only 5 cents, or the letter postage, for carrying 
the mails between that harbor and the ports of Central 
and South America' ? 

"It has been said this is in the interest of the steam- 
ship companies alone. That is not true. That it 
will advantage them no one can deny, but that they 
are the only parties to be benefited is wholly ground- 
less. I hold in my hand the manifest of a single 
steamship, the Finance, of the Brazilian line, which 
sailed from New York on the 28th of February last. 
What cargo did she have on board? She had on 
board, going from the United States to those South 
American countries, $250,000 worth of American 
goods, — a quarter of a million dollars' worth of 
American products on one steamship going to the 
markets of Brazil. This is a matter that concerns the 
steamship companies alone? . . . 

"I hope this appropriation will be made. I hope 
my amendment will be adopted, allowing $400,000 
to be used on the present lines, and authorizing the 
Postmaster-general to use the balance to extend those 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 229 

lines and to put on new ones. I would not permit 
England to hold the markets of Mexico, Central and 
South America, if by paying a liberal compensation 
to American steamships for carrying the mails I could 
rescue them from her. This can be done, and by so 
doing we will reopen our mines, relight our furnaces, 
dispose of our surplus products, give employment to 
labor and investment to capital, and augment the 
prosperity of the Nation on the land and her prowess 
upon the sea." 

By far the most important measure of the Forty- 
ninth Congress was the establishment of a commission 
to enforce the Inter-state Commerce Act, which for- 
bade discrimination in freight charges, pooling, and 
rebating. We should remember that Burrows, in 
1874, ^^s one of the first to expound the rights and 
limitations of Congress as applied to Inter-state Com- 
merce.^ He was peculiarly fitted, therefore, to take 
part in this discussion, and contributed important 
data to the debate. In closing, he said: 'Tt is well, 
in taking possession of this new field of National 
occupancy, that we move with extreme caution. We 
are on the border of an unexplored territory, and 
every step is fraught with momentous consequences. 
Vast interests are involved. In redressing wrongs 
we must invade no right, and advance with such 

iSee page 152. 



230 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

prudence and consideration that in the end our 
National domination over this great question will be 
to all a National blessing." 

The work of the Fiftieth Congress was compara- 
tively unimportant, but the Mills Bill, which was pro- 
posed as the Democratic contribution to Tariff legisla- 
tion, gave Burrows an opportunity to demonstrate his 
value to his Party and to establish himself as one of 
the foremost champions of Protection in the country. 
His speech against the Bill attracted National atten- 
tion, and was considered so important a Republican 
document that over a hundred thousand copies were 
distributed as campaign literature. The nature of 
the Bill is explained and extracts from Burrows' 
speech are given in a later chapter.^ 

The Presidential campaign of 1888 made Tariff 
its main issue. The political effect of the Mills Bill 
proved to be far-reaching, and the country was 
thoroughly aroused from coast to coast. Tariff was 
the one topic of conversation, and for the first time the 
Parties were squarely aligned against each other upon 
this important subject. The Democratic Party wrote 
into their platform a specific endorsement of the Mills 
Bill, while the Republicans in their platform declared 
unequivocally, "We are uncompromisingly in favor of 
the American system of Protection. We protest 

iSee Chapter YIII. 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 231 

against its destruction as proposed by the President 
and his Party. They serve the interests of Europe; 
we will support the interests of America. . . . The 
protective system must be maintained. Its abandon- 
ment has always been followed by disaster to all 
interests except those of the usurer and the sheriff. 
We denounce the Mills Bill as destructive to general 
business, the labor and the farming interests of the 
country." 

The campaign was bitterly fought between Har- 
rison and Cleveland, and the Democratic candidate 
suffered from the fact that the public had become con- 
vinced that his Party was pointed towards Free Trade. 
In vain Cleveland protested that it was Tariff revision 
rather than Free Trade, but his statements were dis- 
counted by the over-enthusiasm of certain Democrats, 
particularly in the South, who made no attempt to 
conceal their satisfaction over the liberal doctrines he 
espoused. Harrison, in his letter of acceptance, 
stated that the campaign was between wide-apart 
principles rather than between schedules, and 
referred to those who believed in the Democratic con- 
tention that "the tariff is a tax," as "students of 
maxims, not of markets." 

The Republicans won both in the Presidential and 
Congressional elections, and naturally accepted their 
victory as a definite verdict in favor of Protection. 



232 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

Burrows was prominent in the campaign, but, owing 
to his candidacy for reelection, confined his activities 
to political engagements in Michigan and the near-by 
States. T. B. Reed visited Michigan on his Western 
campaign tour, and after one of his speeches wrote to 
Burrows (October 15, 1888) : "Your Benton Har- 
bor people gave me a delightful meeting and have 
treated me royally. I was specially pleased to hear 
them talk so well of you. You have evidently got 
where the district is yours heart and soul." 

The Fifty-first Congress convened in December, 
1889, and promptly found itself in a hard-contested 
struggle for the Speakership. The candidates nar- 
rowed down to Thomas B. Reed of Maine, Joseph G. 
Cannon of Illinois, David B. Henderson of Iowa, 
William McKinley, Jr. of Ohio, and Julius C. Burrows 
of Michigan. Reed and McKinley led in the first 
ballot, and the contest, as it developed, proved to be 
between these two, the former finally winning by the 
majority of a single vote. The qualifications pos- 
sessed by Burrows for this position may perhaps be 
shown by quoting from what General Patrick A. 
Collins, then a Democratic member of Congress, said 
before the balloting began : 

"Of the five candidates, I consider that Mr. Bur- 
rows would make the best Speaker, and I know Bur- 
rows less than any of the others; but he has the 



iSgo] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 233 

presence, the voice, the temperament, and the knowl- 
edge of parUamentary practice and rules to make him 
preside over the House in a way that will be eminently 
satisfactory to his own Party, and win for him the re- 
spect of ours. As a good Democrat, I hope to see 
Burrows defeated. I would rather see Reed in the 
chair, because he would most hkely get his Party in 
hot water before he had been there very long; or Mc- 
Kinley, because his parhamentary knowledge is ex- 
tremely limited; or Cannon, because he loses his 
temper; — but if I were a RepubHcan, and had the 
good of the Party at heart, I would want to see Bur- 
rows made Speaker." 

Robert Graves, a Washington correspondent, in 
speaking of the intimacy of the friendship between 
Reed of Maine, Burrows of Michigan, Payne of New 
York, Dolliver of Iowa, and Boutelle of Maine, nar- 
rates the following, which bears upon this contest: 

"There was a time when this happy band was in 
danger of collapse. It was in the Fifty-first Con- 
gress, when Reed was candidate for Speaker. He 
thought the other fellows along with other Republi- 
can members were going to join forces in the ensuing 
Congress for the purpose of making Burrows Speaker. 
Reed's pride was so much hurt by this that he 
threatened to go out of Congress, decline the renom- 
ination, and retire to private hfe. Mr. Dolliver acted 



234 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

as peacemaker. He invited all hands to dinner, and 
over the walnuts and the wine every one pledged 
loyalty to Reed, and the determination of that gentle- 
man to retire to private life was withdrawn. Dolli- 
ver's little dinner may have changed the history of the 
Republican Party." 

Reed's personal qualities made him one of the most 
powerful and brilliant Speakers in the history of 
Congress, and the firmness with which he ruled 
produced a well-organized and constructive body out 
of a demoralized House. He broke all precedents by 
declaring that the Speaker of the House was author- 
ized to count as making for a quorum every Represent- 
ative present in the Chamber, whether he answered to 
roll-call or not. The Democrats protested angrily 
against this arbitrary ruling, but Reed's action so 
hastened the transaction of business and so prevented 
filibustering that the Democrats themselves, when 
later in power, adopted what became known as the 
"Reed rule." This made the Speaker of the House 
virtually a dictator, and, after the President, the most 
powerful man in the Federal Government. 

Speaker Reed promptly appointed his rival for the 
Speakership, William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio, as 
Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and 
Burrows was named second on that Committee. It 
was an exceptionally strong body, including, besides 



iSgo] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 235 

these two, Thomas M. Bayne of Pennsylvania, Nelson 
Dingley, Jr., of Maine, Joseph McKenna of California, 
Sereno E. Payne of New York, Robert M. La Follette 
of Wisconsin, John H. Gear of Iowa, John G. Carlisle 
of Kentucky, Roger Q. Mills of Texas, Benton McMil- 
lin of Tennessee, Roswell P. Flower of New York, and 
Clinton R. Breckinridge of Arkansas. To this body 
of men was entrusted the task of framing what became 
the famous McKinley Bill,^ and in this framing Bur- 
rows played an important part. McKinley himself 
said: "No man's thought and labor did more for the 
Tariff Bill of 1890 than did that of Mr. Burrows. 
For months he gave it his almost undivided time and 
attention. He is the member most valued and appre- 
ciated by the Committee." 

1 See Chapter IX. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Protectionist. 1885-1888 

A STUDENT could find no better source of 
-^^ information on the subject of Protection phi- 
losophy in the United States than the speeches made 
by Burrows during his campaigns and on the floor of 
the House and the Senate. It was a subject which 
early attracted his interest, and to it he devoted over 
thirty years of painstaking study and investigation. 
As a result of this, his knowledge on Tariff problems 
was second to none, and as a member of the Commit- 
tee on Ways and Means from 1887 to 1895, and, later, 
of the Senate Finance Committee, he found ample 
opportunity for its application. The minority mem- 
bers of the Committee were given no opportunity even 
to consider the Mills Bill until it was presented to the 
House, but in the substitute Bill, upon which the 
Republicans worked while waiting for the restoration 
of their Party to power, and out of which the McKin- 
ley Bill evolved. Burrows took prominent part both 
in its construction and in its defense. 

Burrows embraced the doctrine of Protection, 

together with thousands of other Republicans, before 

236 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 237 
it became so powerful an ally of the capitalists, and 
remained loyal to its creed because he believed in it, 
and because the Party which always stood as its 
sponsor was the champion of so many questions of 
great National importance. More than this, to many 
it would have seemed unpatriotic, almost treason- 
able, during the years immediately following the Civil 
War, to have advocated Free Trade, for that had been 
the poHcy of the slaveholders' Party. And, finally. 
Burrows had seen with his own eyes the unparalleled 
prosperity which came to industry and commerce 
from the appHcation of this principle. 

At the time when Alexander Hamilton made the 
first formal defense of Protection, in his famous report 
on manufactures, there was no danger of having tariff 
duties manipulated in favor of special interests, 
because manufactures scarcely existed. The early 
idea of Protection was to create and foster rather than 
to protect. If manufacturing interests sprang into 
existence as a result of this paternal influence, a 
demand would naturally arise for the consumption of 
raw material. Furthermore, the Federal Govern- 
ment needed an income which should be independent 
of the States, and a discriminating duty upon imports 
was a much more popular method of securing this 
than a direct tax upon the people. All American 
citizens felt the importance of becoming industrially 



238 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

independent if the Nation was to become great. 

While it was generally understood that when the 
infant industries became established upon a firm basis 
all duties might be abolished, circumstances com- 
bined to commit the Federal Government to a definite 
policy of Protection. With the establishment of 
Free Trade between the States, and the discriminating 
duties upon imports, came a prosperity beyond all 
expectations. The struggle between France and 
England from 1806 to 18 12, followed by our own war 
with England, destroyed American commerce and 
forced the country to become commercially self- 
reliant. At the close of the war, the United States 
was literally swamped by the importation of foreign 
goods, and self-preservation brought into existence a 
powerful capitalistic Party, which supported the 
Federal Government in maintaining and advancing its 
protective policy. 

When the Civil War broke upon the country, the 
Federal Government was taxed to the utmost to 
develop every possible source of revenue, and the 
capitalistic Party found ready listeners at Washing- 
ton to its suggestion of still further increasing import 
duties. England's sympathy with the South, imper- 
fectly concealed, was so obvious an effort to reduce 
this country to a position where she should produce 
raw materials only, thus destroying American compet- 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 239 

ing manufactures, that another powerful argument 
was added in favor of Protection. After the success 
of the Northern armies it was never forgotten that 
written into the Constitution of the Confederate States 
were clauses forbidding Congress *'to appropriate 
money for any internal improvement intended to 
facilitate commerce," and prescribing that "no boun- 
ties shall be granted from the Treasury, nor shall any 
taxes on imports from foreign nations be laid to 
promote or foster any branch of domestic industry." 

After the Civil War the country turned rapidly 
from agriculture to manufactures, and the capitalistic 
Party gained in strength and aggressiveness. Those 
engaged in the production of raw materials, quick to 
see the advantages accruing to the manufacturers, 
demanded equal protection for themselves, and 
received the forced support of the now "favored 
class." In order to justify this, it was argued that 
foreign trade was at best an evil to be diminished to 
as great an extent as possible ; that high prices should 
be maintained in order to permit high wages; that 
the home market should be protected for home 
products. 

The Republican Party at its birth stood for Protec- 
tion, and whether willingly or not this principle was 
stamped indelibly upon its standard by the circum- 
stances already cited. It was the Republican Party 



240 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

which preserved the Union, which maintained the 
payment of State and National debts, and in this way 
it gained prestige which reflected credit upon all its 
tenets. During its administration National and 
international relations prospered, and the tendency 
of the country was unquestionably in the direction of 
capitalistic development, — the railroads and the 
canals opened up the great natural resources to the 
people, the National expansion of free education 
made that people competent to receive the benefits. 
It is not strange that Burrows should have been 
staunch in his conviction that Protection was one of 
the greatest boons his Party had conferred upon his 
country, or that he should have proved so able an 
exponent and defendant of the principle itself. 

Until the nomination of Grover Cleveland in 1884 
for the Presidency of the United States, the long 
supremacy of the Republican Party precluded any 
danger of having the principle seriously undermined; 
the discussion related simply to the means and method 
of arranging the tariff. Burrows, therefore, had little 
occasion to express himself forcefully upon this par- 
ticular phase of Republicanism until he found him- 
self, with his fellow-Republicans, face to face with 
the real issue of Protection against Free Trade in this 
Presidential campaign. On October 20, 1884, he 
made an address before the Michigan farmers, and 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 241 

explained the importance of Protection in its relation 
to agriculture. It is an excellent example of his 
methods of expounding the doctrines in which he 
believed : 

"It must be apparent to every one," he said, "that 
in some way we must meet the annual expenses of 
this Government. No one would think it wise or 
prudent, no one would call it good statesmanship, not 
to provide for these yearly expenses. It is estimated 
that it takes some $300,000,000. With a popula- 
tion of 50,000,000 people, if we should resort to 
direct taxation it would compel every man, woman, 
and child in this Republic to pay $6 apiece annually. 
We do not collect this revenue by direct taxation, but 
we collect it by the imposition of the tariff, and the 
imposition of a direct tax on the people would cer- 
tainly be very unpopular and end in revolution. So 
the fathers, at the time of the foundation of the 
Republic, wisely determined to resort to the method 
of indirect taxation, or the imposition of duties on 
imported goods, as the best means of raising the 
requisite amount to defray the expenses of the Gov- 
ernment. The first Congress, at its first session 
under the Constitution of the United States, passed as 
its second Act a measure imposing duties on foreign 
imports ; and the first Act signed by George Washing- 
ton, saving the Act regulating the oath of office, was 



242 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

an Act imposing duty, or a tariff, on imported goods. 
From the foundation of the Government till this very 
moment there has never been a year or a month or an 
hour when this policy has been abandoned. All 
Parties, at all times, have insisted on a tariff. The 
exact point of difference then, today, between the 
Democratic Party and the Republican Party is this: 
the Democratic Party insists that in its imposition no 
regard shall be had to domestic industries, no regard 
had to domestic labor, no regard had to National 
prosperity; but duties shall be imposed solely with 
the view of collecting a sufficient amount to defray the 
expenses of the Government. 

"A tariff for revenue only, — ^what is it? A fair 
illustration would be the imposition of a duty on 
coffee, tea, indigo; things not produced in this coun- 
try and which cannot be produced in this country. 
The revenue derived from this source would be purely 
and strictly a revenue tariff. It could have no 
element of protection in it, because there is no domes- 
tic industry of the kind to be protected. 

"The Republican Party takes clear and sharp issue 
with the Democratic Party on that question, and says, 
'No; do not make this imposition of duty on articles 
not produced in this country. Let tea, coffee, things 
not produced here, come in free ; but impose this duty 
on articles that we do produce or can produce': and 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 243 

the Party affirms that by so doing we will accomplish 
a double purpose. First, we shall raise the necessary 
revenue to meet the annual expenses of the Govern- 
ment, and we shall do a further and a better thing, — 
we shall encourage, foster, and build up domestic 
industries, and give employment to American capital 
and protection to American labor. . . . 

"I suppose that every farmer will concede that he 
(does not till the soil for the pleasure of it. He labors 
not only to provide for his own family, for his own 
wants, but to accumulate a competence for his declin- 
ing years. To accumulate that competence it is 
necessary for him to have a market for his surplus 
products. It is of the highest importance to the 
farmer that his markets shall be as near to his farm 
as possible, and the nearer his market can be brought 
to his farm the more valuable will be his products. 
No one can question that. It follows, therefore, that 
if you had to rely entirely on a foreign market for the 
sale of your surplus products the value of them would 
be very largely diminished, for the cost of transporta- 
tion comes out of the value of the product as you take 
it from the farm. . . . 

"Secondly, a protective tariff benefits the farmer in 
giving him a steady market. What the farmer wants, 
quite as much as a market, is a steady market, so that 
when he sows his broad acres in the Fall he may know 



244 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [188^ 

in advance that he can reap with profit. Suppose we 
had no consuming class in the United States, and the 
farmer had to depend upon the foreign market for the 
sale of his surplus product. One year there would be 
a dearth in Europe, and she would take all the surplus 
products of the farms of the United States. Then 
the farmer, trusting upon that market, would sow 
broader fields, and lay the foundation for richer 
harvests; but the next year comes and the harvests 
are bountiful in Europe, and Europe at once says to 
the farmers of the United States, 'We have no use for 
your surplus products,' and the wheat and the corn 
rot in the stack or in the crib. 

"But a protective tariff benefits the farmer in the 
third place, by increasing the value of his farm lands. 
The value of his farm products is not only increased 
by this home market, but the value of the farm itself 
is enhanced by building up manufacturing industries. 
I do not make this statement without knowing whereof 
I affirm. If I should call the roll of States, you would 
be amazed to find that in those States where manu- 
facturing is the greatest the value of farm lands is the 
highest, and in those States where manufacturing is 
the least the value of farm lands is the least. . . . 

"But a protective tariff benefits the farmer in other 
ways. It gives a market for the farmer for things 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 245 

that he could not otherwise dispose of, and which on 
his farm he regards as substantially valueless. . . . 

"There is another industry affected by the tariff in 
which the farmer is specially interested. I allude to 
the wool industry. The sheep growers of this district, 
and of the whole country, are deeply interested in the 
wool industry of the United States. It sprang into 
existence under a protective tariff. The farmers 
have invested in their flocks the accumulation of long 
years. They were led to do this by the protection of 
this industry, and we have reached a point in 1884 
when the destruction of this industry is seriously 
threatened. . . . More than a million men are today 
flock-masters in the United States. These flocks are 
increasing not only in number, but in quality. If 
this industry is not protected it certainly will go to the 
wall. The wool-growers of the United States cannot 
compete with the wool-growers of South America and 
Australia. In the first place, take the Australian 
wool, — it is just as good a wool, if not better, than you 
can grow. They are increasing their flocks of sheep 
beyond all calculations. They herd them on lands 
which they rent by the year for a penny an acre. 
They have no sheds or barns, for it is perpetual sum- 
mer. They shear the sheep twice a year. They feed 
them nothing in the Winter, for there is no Winter; 



246 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

and they can grow that wool and lay it down in your 
market, at a profit, for twelve or fifteen cents a 
pound. Where is there a wool-grower in my hearing 
this afternoon who is prepared to say that it would pay 
him to continue in the wool industry if wool was only 
twelve or fifteen cents a pound? Free trade in wool 
would simply drive your flocks to the slaughter 
pens." . . . 

By electing Cleveland the country seemed to 
express its desire to test out more liberal trade condi- 
tions as against Protection. Whatever may have 
been Cleveland's personal attitude in the matter of 
tariff, he found himself confronted by a serious prob- 
lem. The excess of receipts over expenditures was 
placing the Administration in a really dangerous 
position ; tax reduction could not be secured, and the 
President failed to come to any agreement with his 
Party on expenditures, the net result being that the 
Treasury Department had no alternative other than 
to store up its funds or to buy bonds in the open 
market. For the Treasury to retain one year's sur- 
plus revenue meant that the monetary circulation 
must be reduced at least one-twelfth, and such a con- 
traction made a financial crisis not only possible but 
probable. Cleveland became convinced that tax 
reduction was absolutely imperative, declaring that 
his position was taken on the ground of excess revenue 




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Q O 
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i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 247 

only, and not necessarily in opposition to the protec- 
tive system. He further suggested that these reduc- 
tions be made upon necessities rather than upon 
luxuries. 

Suffering from a lack of financial leadership in the 
House, the Democratic Party floundered about trying 
to find a way out of their difficulty. William R. 
Morrison of Illinois, Chairman of the Ways and 
Means Committee, introduced various Tariff meas- 
ures, but failed to secure the support even of his own 
Party. Cleveland continued to bring pressure to 
bear upon Congress, doing his best to educate his 
Party, his efforts culminating in his annual message 
of December, 1887, which was devoted entirely to 
revenue reform. In spite of the fact that Cleveland 
always disavowed the imputation of being a Free- 
Trader, this message was accepted as nothing less 
than a Free Trade document, and the President was 
immediately placed in the ranks of the pronounced 
Tariff Reformers. 

Roger Q. Mills of Texas had now become Chairman 
of the Ways and Means Committee, and to him was 
entrusted the task of formulating a Tariff Bill which 
should accomplish the ideas which the President 
advocated. When this document, known as the Mills 
Bill, was finally presented to the House, it brought 
forth one of the most remarkable debates in the 



248 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

history of Congress. It consumed a record amount 
of time, and its political effect was tremendously far- 
reaching. In it the revision reached every schedule 
of the tariff, but it was inconsistent in its relation to 
different industries, and, taken as a whole, could not 
be considered as successful in accomplishing the 
reduction which was the reason for its consideration. 
It was decidedly sectional in its nature, sacrificing the 
protection of certain industries which flourished in 
Republican States while giving protection to indus- 
tries which were already prospering in Democratic 
States. The methods employed in preparing the Bill 
were also open to criticism, as the Republican mem- 
bers of the Committee on Ways and Means were kept 
entirely in the dark until the Bill itself was reported 
to the House. The Mills Bill was finally passed 
through the House by a narrow margin, but received 
its death blow in the Republican Senate; so that its 
greatest importance may be said to have been its 
effect upon the campaign of 1888. 

A spectator, seated in the diplomatic gallery, has 
recorded the following graphic description of the 
scene in the House when Burrows delivered his speech 
against the Bill: 

"Every seat, above and below, was occupied, and 
every inch of standing room to the doors. On the 
Democratic side members appeared busy, some writ- 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 249 

ing, some reading papers which were uneasily and 
frequently turned as if their readers were unable to 
find anything of interest. Their ears were evidently, 
more attent than their eyes. Every word that fell 
from the speaker's lips was caught with earnest 
interest by every person in the Hall of Congress. 
The suppressed excitement was intense. When Mr. 
Burrows reached the closing portion of his speech and 
touched on the South, laying aside his notes and 
stepping from the side of his desk, the members on 
the other side who had feigned giving attention to 
other things, turned. Papers were dropped. Pens 
with their tiny store of ink remained idle in the hand. 
The speech closed amidst a tremendous outburst from 
the crowds assembled. The throng rushed for the 
speaker, — friends who admired and sympathized with 
the sentiments of the speech, not unmingled with 
opponents who admired its candor and brilliance. 
Mr. Burrows was overwhelmed with congratulations." 

The following extracts from this speech show the 
results of the thoroughgoing and consistent thought 
Burrows gave to the subject of Tariff legislation : 

"That the accumulation of such a surplus must be 
averted there can be no question. A constantly- 
accruing and ever-increasing surplus not only invites 
to profligacy, but insures swift financial disaster. 
There can be, therefore, no conflict of opinion but 



250 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

that there must be such a modification of our tax laws 
as will insure a reduction of revenue to the basis of 
probable Governmental expenditure. This would 
seem to be a problem easily solved; and indeed its 
solution would be attended with little difficulty if no 
other result was to be obtained than a reduction of the 
surplus. In each case it would only be necessary to 
ascertain the sources of revenue, and then cut off 
indiscriminately sufficient to insure the desired result. 
But a reduction of the revenue is not the only nor 
indeed the chief end to be attained. The method by 
which that reduction is to be accomplished has become 
the main point of controversy, and, indeed, the only 
point about which there is any serious conflict of 
opinion. Shall the proposed reduction be taken 
from internal or from customs revenues, or from 
both; and if from both, in what proportion from each? 
These are the questions of chief concern, and here 
Parties divide and here the conflict begins. 

"What is the occasion for this division — ^why this 
conflict? It is this: we derive our revenues from two 
sources, internal taxation and a tax on imports. Our 
tariff on imports is today confessedly protective in 
that it is levied not with a view to raising 'revenue 
only' but to protect American labor and encourage 
American industries. The Democratic Party, or at 
least one wing of it under the leadership of President 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 251 

Cleveland, assails this system, denouncing it as 
'vicious and illogical,' and declares it to be not only 
unwise but unconstitutional; that duties on imports 
should be levied, in the language of the last National 
Democratic platform, for 'revenue only,' submitting 
of course to such accidental protection as may be 
incident thereto as an evil to be endured rather than 
an end to be attained. On the contrary, the Repub- 
lican Party believes in a protective tariff; that in 
imposing duties upon imports revenue is not the only 
consideration, but that these duties should be so 
adjusted as to give encouragement to American enter- 
prise, investment to American capital, and employ- 
ment to American labor; and the Republican Party 
insists that our present protective system shall not be 
disturbed except so far as it may be necessary to cor- 
rect its incongruities and harmonize its provisions. 

"With these two conflicting theories it is easy to 
understand why the contest arises, at the very thresh- 
old, upon the method of reduction. If we reduce our 
revenues by removing or materially lessening internal 
taxes, our protective system cannot be seriously dis- 
turbed; on the contrary, if we follow the lead of the 
President and secure a reduction by such a revision 
of the tariff as he proposes, leaving untouched our 
internal revenues, not only will our protective system 
be destroyed, but the Nation itself will be well out on 



252 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

the highway to Free Trade. Therefore it is that the 
Free-Trader would take as little as possible from 
internal taxation that he may more successfully assail 
our protective policy; while the Protectionist would 
take as much as possible from internal revenues that 
he may more surely defend it. At the foundation, 
therefore, of this controversy lies the question of 
policy, which must be first settled before we can come 
to an intelligent consideration of the Committee's 
Bill ; and as we are Free-Traders or Protectionists that 
Bill will be approved or condemned. 

"I propose, therefore, at this time to submit some 
general observations touching our revenue system, 
leaving the discussion of the details of the proposed 
measure to an occasion when their consideration will 
be immediately in hand. I may pause a moment, 
however, in passing, to say of this measure as a whole 
that in its inpeption and presentation to this House 
it stands without a parallel in the history of American 
legislation. Conceived in darkness, brought forth in 
secrecy, — its parentage carefully concealed, — it was 
at last laid at the door of the Committee on Ways and 
Means, where the majority took it up as tenderly as 
though it were their legitimate offspring, and hur- 
riedly brought the 'lump of deformity' into this 
House, to be adopted by the Democratic Party and 
nursed by the harlot of Free Trade. But whatever 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 253 

its parentage, whether British Free-Trader or the 
Cobden Club, — either of whom is capable of the out- 
rage, — justice compels me to state that public 
suspicion does not attach to any member of the 
minority; and in further vindication of their high 
character it will be no violation of the secrets of the 
committee-room to state that, when pressed upon this 
point, there was no member of the majority so lost to 
all sense of personal pride as to admit the parentage. 
"But seriously. Think of the majority of a great 
committee of this House, charged with the duty of 
considering an important message of the President of 
the United States, hiding away from the minority of 
that committee for six weeks and in some secret place, 
taking counsel possibly of the enemies of our indus- 
tries, without consultation with the minority, framing 
a measure involving the industrial prosperity of 60,- 
000,000 people ; and, when completed and presented 
to the full committee, that same majority refusing to 
enter upon consideration of its provisions or to dis- 
close any data upon which their action was based; 
stolidly refusing to answer any and every question 
propounded by the minority touching any portion of 
the Bill; submitting to no modification in a single 
particular, unless suggested by the majority; declin- 
ing to listen to any member of this House in behalf of 
the people he represents; refusing audience to Sena- 



254 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

tors, the industries of whose States were to be crippled 
or destroyed; rejecting all appeals from manufac- 
turers whose connection with their industries enabled 
them to point out the pernicious effects of the pro- 
posed measure; refusing to hear one word of protest 
from the farmer whose flocks and fields are to be 
despoiled; shutting the door of the committee-room 
in the face of the laboring men of the country who 
came to plead for the protection of their homes and 
their families. Imagine, I say, such conduct on the 
part of a committee of this House, and you have a 
faint conception of the Committee on Ways and 
Means of the Fiftieth Congress. 

"But to resume the course of my argument. We 
have today a double system of taxation, direct and 
indirect. Heretofore it has never been the settled 
policy of the Government permanently to maintain 
both. A choice of methods was open to the founders 
of the Republic, and they wisely determined to raise 
the needed revenue for the support of the Govern- 
ment by imposing a duty on imports. That method 
has never been suspended. It has undergone modifi- 
cations, at different times, to conform to Party de- 
mands, but it has never for an hour been wholly aban- 
doned. It is the approved and established method 
of providing for the ordinary expenses of the Govern- 
ment. True, direct taxation has sometimes been 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 255 

resorted to to meet unforeseen National emergencies, 
but heretofore it has always been abandoned as soon 
as the exigency has passed. Previous to the War of 
the Rebellion direct taxation was invoked only in two 
instances, — first in 1791, to meet the extraordinary 
demands of a new Government with an empty treas- 
ury and an unestablished credit, and again in 18 13, 
to provide the sinews of war in the second conflict 
with Great Britain. In both instances, however, 
direct taxation was abandoned at the earliest moment 
consistent with National honor and safety. The law 
of 1791 remained in force but nine years, and was 
repealed at the earnest solicitation of President Jeffer- 
son, while the Act of 18 13, after having been on the 
statute books but four years, was expunged upon the 
recommendation of President Monroe. . . . 

"Assuming that the American people will not 
abandon a policy adopted by the fathers and approved 
by a century of experience, I come to the considera- 
tion of the vital point at issue, namely, upon what 
articles shall duties be imposed, and to what extent 
shall they be levied, — with regard to revenue only 
or for the double purpose of revenue and protection ? 
Shall the theories of the Free-Trader prevail and 
dominate in the revision of our tariff, or shall it con- 
tinue to be adjusted not only with a view to revenue 
but for the promotion of American interests? This 



256 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

is the question at issue. In this contest the Repub- 
lican Party takes the side of Protection, and will 
resist to the uttermost any attempt coming from what- 
ever source it may to cripple American industries, 
destroy American capital, or pauperize American 
labor. . . . 

"But what is the revision proposed by this Bill? 
First, by putting on the free-list articles which last 
year yielded a revenue of $22,000,000. Now, all 
Parties agree that anything and everything which is 
not and cannot be produced in this country, and can- 
not therefore come in competition with any domestic 
industry, shall be admitted free of duty. But the 
free-list in this Bill goes far beyond that, and exposes 
to foreign assault many of our most important indus- 
tries, particularly those of agriculture. There is not 
a schedule of our tariff it does not invade. The great 
wool-growing interest of the country, a matter of 
prime necessity to a civiHzed people, only in the in- 
fancy of its development, capable of producing, if 
properly fostered and encouraged, the material for 
the clothing of all our people, is to be exposed to a 
ruinous foreign competition which will surely prove 
its ultimate destruction with all the capital invested 
therein. The majority of the Committee on Ways 
and Means, in their report on this Bill, seek to delude 
the people with the idea that free wool means cheaper 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 257 

wool, and with it cheaper clothing, and that the 
farmers can well afford to submit to the destruction of 
sheep husbandry that they may thereby obtain 
cheaper woolen goods. 

"That wool would be cheaper while our foreign 
rivals were engaged in destroying this domestic indus- 
try is quite possible; but when they have completed 
their work of demolition, when they have driven our 
flocks to the slaughter-pen and eliminated from our 
market an annual production of 300,000,000 pounds 
of domestic wool, we will find ourselves bound hand 
and foot, manufacturers and consumers alike, at the 
mercy of the foreign producer. What restraint 
then will there be upon his power or cupidity? 

"What I have said touching this industry will 
apply with equal force to the main body of the free- 
list. But I must pass on to the third method pro- 
posed, namely, the reduction of rates on the dutiable 
list, and here we enter the field of speculation. Now, 
I do not hesitate to affirm that, taking this measure 
as a whole, no man living, even if a member of the 
secret cabal that framed it, is audacious enough to 
predict with any degree of certainty the amount of 
reduction it will secure. . . . 

"But I have alluded to this in this connection not 
so much for the purpose of showing the impracticabil- 
ity of the proposed method, as to call attention to the 



258 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

fact that the majority of the Committee on Ways and 
Means proposed to take only $24,000,000 from in- 
ternal taxation, while a reduction of $54,000,000 is 
attempted to be secured by the lowering or total aboli- 
tion of duties on imports in the interest of foreign 
rival industries, and to the detriment and destruction 
of our own. This fact alone is sufficient to confirm 
public apprehension and belief that the Democratic 
Party, or at least the controlling wing of it, while 
professing an anxiety to relieve the people of unnec- 
essary taxation, is much more anxious to destroy our 
protective system than to stop the accumulation of a 
needless surplus. With an easy and open way to a 
sure and ample reduction of the .revenues without 
disturbing a single American industry or paralyzing 
a single arm of labor, yet the Democratic Party de- 
clines to walk therein, preferring that other course, 
strewn with the wrecks of a Nation's experience, and 
fraught with the utmost peril to all our interests and 
all our people. ... 

"The President seeks to allay public apprehension 
in this regard by declaring that in the execution of 
this plan care will be taken not to cripple or destroy 
our manufactures or work 'loss of employment to the 
working-man or the lessening of his wages.' As if 
his plan could be carried out without working such a 
result! As well might the surgeon, having an- 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 259 

nounced his intention to remove the heart of his 
patient, seek to allay his fears by the assurance that 
he would not disturb his circulation or impair his 
physical energies! One is as preposterous as the 
other. But the President, and I suppose the authors 
and advocates of this measure, will endeavor to in- 
duce the American people to submit to this suicidal 
operation by administering some sort of narcotic, 
which for the moment will dethrone their judgment 
and make them oblivious to the dangers of the experi- 
ment. And here let me say there is nothing so con- 
ducive to this state of insensibility as the seductive 
influence of that theory that a duty on imports is a 
tax on the consumer. Once induce the people to 
believe that they are unjustly taxed and there is no 
political quackery they will not endure which gives 
promise of relief. Conscious of this fact, the Presi- 
dent in his annual message reasserts in the most posi- 
tive manner that theory, which I had supposed was 
long since exploded, that a duty imposed upon an 
imported article by so much enhances the price of 
such article to the consumer, and that therefore the 
removal of such duty would proportionately reduce 
the price. . . . 

"But what answer is to be made to this theory? 
There is one at least comprehensive and complete. 
It is not true. I commend to the President his ad- 



26o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

monition to others, to remember 'it is a condition 
which confronts us, not a theory' ; and that condition 
is an absolute refutation of his theory. ... I chal- 
lenge any man to name the product of a single well- 
established American industry that cannot be bought 
cheaper today under our protective system than dur- 
ing any period of our history under Free Trade or a 
tariff for revenue only. . . . 

"It is an astounding fact that the value of tlie 
200,000,000 acres of farm lands in the eleven States 
composing the late Confederacy are not equal to the 
26,000,000 acres of farm lands in the States of New 
York and New Jersey. I beg to assure the gentle- 
men of the South that I have drawn this contrast in 
no invidious spirit, but only in confirmation of the 
fact that the development of manufactures tends to 
enhance the value of agricultural lands. It seems to 
me, however, that there is a lesson to be drawn from 
this of inestimable value to you. The South needs 
this development. Protection has brought it to the 
North, — it will bring it to you. You have but to 
accept it and it will bring to you an era of unexampled 
prosperity. It will open and develop your mines, 
explore your forests, light the fires of your furnaces, 
build your factories, construct your railways, invite 
capital to investment, give employment to your labor, 
plant cities in your waste places, and lead your people 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 261 

into the highway of industrial progress. You have 
already entered thereon. During the last ninety 
days $36,000,000 of capital have gone into your 
manufacturing industries. In this I rejoice. There 
is not an industry in the South, the development of 
which would redound to her glory, that I would not as 
jealously guard as though it were the industry of 
Michigan. I believe in Protection not for my State 
alone but for my country. I beheve in American in- 
dustries, American capital, American labor, against 
the whole world. . . . 

"Let me warn you, gentlemen of the South, that 
this measure bodes no good to you. It will arrest 
the investment of capital in your midst and bring your 
industries to a stand-still. There is no portion of 
our country where this measure should meet with a 
more united and determined opposition than in the 
South. Untoward circumstances have heretofore re- 
tarded her material progress, but the way is now open 
for her to march unimpeded to a splendid industrial 
future. The advance is already sounded. He who 
does not respond to its inspiring summons will soon 
find himself without a Party and without a following. 
I rejoice that there is a new South, a new industrial 
South, born of the throes of war, but full of hope and 
full of courage. She stands today with uphfted 
brow facing the dawn of a mighty future. Her loins 



262 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1885 

are girt for a new race. With unfettered hands she 
smites the earth, and fountains of unmeasured weakh 
gush forth. Beneath her feet she feels the stir of a 
marvelous life. Her pathway is already illumined 
with the light of blazing furnaces. Her heavens are 
aglow with the break of a new day. All hail its on- 
coming! . . . And when the sun shall reach the 
zenith of that glorious day, the North and the South, 
cemented in the indissoluble bonds of commercial and 
fraternal unity, will stand together under the banner 
of protection to American industries and American 
labor, and march to grander industrial triumphs." 

After reading the foregoing extracts from Bur- 
rows' speech against the Mills Bill in the House it is 
of interest to turn to his use of the same material in 
campaign work, and to note how the finished, forensic 
style changes to suit the audience he sees before him. 
This extract is from an address delivered during the 
Harrison campaign : 

"They only changed that Bill seventy-five times 
after they got it into the House, by actual count. 
When they got it in there somebody said, 'Why, Mr. 
Mills, you must not put marble on the free list. 
There is Tennessee, a great marble producing coun- 
try, and I will lose my district.' So they put it back. 
They started out to make this Bill a tariff for revenue 
only, and they ended by making it a tariff for Con- 



i888] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 263 

gressmen only. They put wood screws on the free 
list, and all Connecticut was in a turmoil. Why, 
that would make it go Republican ! and they put wood 
screws back. Why such philosophic problems! 
That is the way to solve the great economical ques- 
tions, to find out who can be elected to Congress. 
And here was Lawler. He said, 'Why, Mr. Mills, 
you put glue on the free list.' And Mr. Mills says, 
'Isn't that raw material? Don't we want glue in the 
manufacture of furniture, and don't we want glue 
free?' And Lawler says, 'Maybe that is so; but my 
stars ! glue is a great industry in my district ; glue is 
the only thing that holds me to my seat !' Well, glue 
went right back. And so they go around, fooling 
about, to see whom they elect to Congress, fixing a 
Bill simply to secure the next House of Representa- 
tives." 



T 



CHAPTER IX 

The McKinley Bill. 1890 

HE McKinley Bill, while outrageously misunder- 
stood and misrepresented for campaign pur- 
poses during the first six months of its existence, 
proved to be the most thorough and consistent re- 
vision of the tariff from a protective point of view 
that had ever been made. In brief, the new Act 
admitted free whatever did not compete with home 
products, and placed heavy duties upon whatever did 
compete, exactly carrying out the principles advo- 
cated by Burrows in the speeches already quoted. 
In addition to this, the Bill included an entirely new 
phase by adding, at Blaine's insistence, the principle 
of Reciprocity, which gave the President power to lay 
duties upon certain of the free goods in case their 
country of origin seemed to tax our exports unduly. 
In contrast to the "star chamber" proceedings which 
surrounded the framing of the Mills Bill, the Com- 
mittee on Ways and Means offered to every interest 
the fullest opportunity to present facts, and every 
effort was made to construct a Bill which should be 
consistent and best serve the greatest number of con- 
flicting interests. 

264 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 265 
Burrows was once described by Henry Loomis Nel- 
son as one who "could deftly defend his leader after 
he had mastered his brief." As far as the McKinley 
Bill was concerned, his speech in its defense could 
come only from one who was defending a brief which 
he himself had been largely instrumental in creat- 
ing/ The speech itself is considered by many to be 
the best presentation of Tariff philosophy ever given 
before Congress; the following description of its re- 
ception by one who was present at the time evidences 
the effect produced by its delivery: 

"The writer remembers with what pleasure and 
delight he listened to Mr. Burrows' speech upon the 
McKinley Bill when it was before the House. It 
had been announced that he would speak, and the 
galleries were crowded. Is seemed as though every 
member of the House was in his seat, and many Sena- 
tors honored the speaker with their presence. The 
door-ways and aisles were crowded with clerks and 
attaches of the House. Every newspaper reporter in 
Washington was present, busily writing and sending 
reports to the metropolitan press. Even the diplo- 
matic gallery was filled with foreign ministers and 
their families, who listened with unfeigned pleasure 
to the eloquence of one of America's greatest orators. 
Every available space in the vast hall was crowded to 

1 See McKinley's acknowledgment, ante, page 235. 



266 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

suffocation, and yet the immense crowd was as quiet 
as a church. Mr. Burrows was in his best and hap- 
piest mood. His melodious voice penetrated each 
nook and corner without apparent effort. Every one 
in the vast assembly seemed entranced, and for nearly 
two hours he held them spellbound with his oratory. 
It was a treat of a lifetime, and was a proud moment 
for men of Michigan who felt the spell of the occasion, 
and could say that they were from the State which 
claimed Burrows for a favorite son. As the crowd 
filed out and dispersed, one distinguished Senator was 
heard to remark to another: 'Burrows has this day 
fired a shot that will be heard around the world.' 
He said only what all thought but none so well ex- 
pressed." 

The following extracts from this speech not only 
give the reader the clearest possible idea of Tariff 
legislation, but exhibit the consummate mastery of 
the subject which its author possessed: 

"If there is any article on the free-list in this Bill 
the like of which, by fair and adequate protection, 
could be produced in this country in sufficient quan- 
tities to meet the home demand, it is an oversight on 
the part of the majority of the Committee, and, if it 
can be pointed out, we will move that it be transferred 
to the dutiable list and given such protection as will 
insure its production in this country. 



iSgo] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 267 

"If there is a single article on the dutiable list 
where the duty is so low as to expose the like domestic 
industry to a ruinous foreign competition and thus 
endangers its permanency, it has but to be indicated 
to secure such measure of protection as will insure 
its safety. 

"If the proposed rate of duty on any article on the 
dutiable hst is in excess of what is required to give 
fair and adequate protection to the competing domes- 
tic industry, none will be more ready than the major- 
ity of your Committee to reduce the rate to the level 
of such requirement. 

"Upon this theory the Bill is constructed, and we 
present it to the House and the country not with the 
assurance that it is perfect in all its details, but with 
confidence that its general framework is in harmony 
with the spirit and policy of the Republican Party. 
It is intended to be a measure of Protection from its 
enacting clause to its closing paragraph. If there is 
a single provision in it which in its practical working 
will inure to the benefit of any foreign industry to the 
detriment of our own, I say frankly that such pro- 
vision is there by inadvertence, and not by intention. 
If there is a section in this Bill which will bring dis- 
aster to any American industry or paralyze the arm 
of a single laboring-man in the United States, such 
section is there by accident, and not by design. 



268 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

"The entire Bill is framed expressly with a view of 
admitting free of duty all articles the like of which 
are not and cannot be produced in this country, and 
imposing duties on the articles we do produce, with 
the double purpose of securing sufficient revenue for 
the support of the Government, while, at the same 
time, fostering and diversifying American industries, 
giving investment to American capital, and employ- 
ment to American labor. 

"But nothing can more forcibly illustrate the two 
theories thus outlined than a comparison of some of 
the provisions of the measure we propose with those 
of the Mills Bill, so called, which is the accepted em- 
bodiment of the doctrine of the Democratic Party on 
the Tariff question. 

"The two measures fully illustrate the two conflict- 
ing, irreconcilable theories. I will take as an illus- 
tration the article of tin-plate. The present duty is 
one cent a pound. The Mills Bill proposed to re- 
move that duty and place tin-plate on the free-list. 
We propose, on the contrary, not only not to make it 
free, but to increase the duty to at least two cents a 
pound, with a view of establishing the industry in the 
United States. 

"It is conceded that we are not producing a pound 
of tin-plate in the United States, and the Democratic 
Party would so legislate as to make its production 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 269 
here an impossibility for all time to come, and thus 
not only continue our dependence on a foreign country 
for a supply of this article of prime necessity, but 
make our thralldom complete and perpetual. We 
propose, on the contrary, by a guaranty of ample pro- 
tection, to invite American capital to enter a new field 
of investment and lay the foundations for the produc- 
tion of our own tin-plate; and instead of importing 
this product we would import and establish the indus- 
try itself, and so not only furnish increased employ- 
ment for American labor, keep the millions at home 
now annually spent abroad, but ultimately reduce the 
price to the American consumer of every pound of 
tin-plate entering into our consumption, both foreign 
and domestic." ^ 

"But the opponents of this measure criticise us not 
only for protecting the articles they would admit 
free of duty, but because we do not propose a general 
reduction of duties all along the line to what they 

1 As a matter of record, and as evidence of the far-sighted impor- 
tance of establishing the new industry of making tin-plate, we have 
but to quote from Burrows' speech against the Wilson Bill made four 
years later: "Nowhere in the field of our industrial achievements 
was the triumph of our protective system more completely vindicated 
than in the creation of the American tin-plate industry. It is as 
astounding as it is gratifying. On the first day of July, 1891, there 
was practically no manufacture of tin-plate in the United States. . . . 
For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, an aggregate manufacture 
of tin and terne plates in the United States of 108,621,883 pounds. 
Yet in the report of the Committee this great and growing industry is 
characterized as a 'bogus industry' 1" 



270 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

may be pleased to regard a revenue basis. They 
seem to be laboring under the delusion that in order 
to reduce the revenues it is only necessary to lower 
the rate of duty on imports. Nothing could be more 
fallacious. It is a most delicate matter so to adjust 
the duty on imports as to secure equitable results to 
all. Some one has said that 'our tariff system is like 
a spider's web; touch a single thread of it and the 
whole fabric trembles.' Our industries are so inter- 
woven and interdependent that a modification of the 
rates in a single particular would be felt throughout 
the entire system. It is a difficult matter so to adjust 
duties as to secure revenue and at the same time ade- 
quately protect the domestic industry. If the duty 
is too high, it is prohibition, with no revenue to the 
Government and danger of monopoly at home. If 
the duty is too low, importations will flow in in such 
abundance as not only to increase the revenue but to 
endanger and ultimately destroy the domestic indus- 
try. . . . 

"That we have increased rates in some instances 
is true. Whenever we have found an established 
American industry suffering from foreign competi- 
tion to such an extent as to endanger its permanency 
and threaten its destruction, we have not hesitated to 
give it such additional protection as will insure its 
maintenance and prosperity. In this connection I 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 271 

am frank to say that in making these increases we 
have not been actuated so much by a desire to avoid 
large percentages as by that higher consideration, the 
necessities of American industries and American 
labor. When, therefore, we have found a domestic 
manufacturer being driven from his own market by 
a remorseless foreign competition, we have not hesi- 
tated to interpose just such Governmental protection 
as will insure to the American producer an equal 
chance, at least, in his own market. . . . 

"But suppose the duty does in some instances in- 
crease the price of the article to the consumer, shall 
we therefore abandon the policy of Protection, throw 
down every barrier, and invite foreign manufacturers 
to take possession of our market because, forsooth, it 
will bring to our people cheaper products? Is it a 
mere question of cheapness? Cheap clothing, cheap 
wages, cheap food, cheap houses, cheap men. Are 
there no higher considerations? Into this race for 
cheapness the Republican Party does not propose to 
enter. . . . 

"It has been said and will be repeated that the pro- 
tective system tends to produce unnatural conditions, 
overproduction, and consequent trusts and combines, 
to the destruction of healthy competition and the 
detriment of the people. Suppose that to be true, is 
that any reason why the system itself should be aban- 



272 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

doned? There are numerous evils growing out of a 
free government, but is that any reason why such a 
government should be demolished and a despotism 
erected on its ruins ? Statesmanship dictates, rather, 
correction of these evils while maintaining the gov- 
ernment. We have already passed a measure ^ 
aimed at these trusts and combines which, it is hoped, 
will uproot and destroy the last vestige of their tyran- 
nical power. 

"I have no apology to offer for the men who seek to 
deprive the people of the benefit of fair prices which 
unrestrained domestic competition insures. When 
an industry in the United States has been built up 
under the fostering care of the Government, and then 
the beneficiaries thereof, feeling the effect of domestic 
competition, combine to prevent the resultant bene- 
fits to the people, I would say to all such, if you will 
not permit free and unrestrained competition at home, 
you shall encounter the competition of the world. 
It would be well, however, to remember in this con- 
nection that trusts are not confined to protected coun- 
tries or to protected industries. . . . 

"We have sought in this measure to reduce the 
surplus revenues to the basis of Governmental needs 
without impairing a single American industry or de- 
priving a single laboring man of the products of his 

iThe Sherman Anti-Trust Act, enacted July 2, 1890. 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 273 

toil. We submit this measure to the considerate 
judgment of the House and the country in the con- 
fident behef that, if enacted into law, it will impart a 
fresh stimulus to all our industries, relieve whatever 
of depression there may now exist, and bring to all 
the people a new era of increased prosperity." 

The McKinley Bill was passed and became effective 
on October 6, 1 890, only a month before the Congres- 
sional elections. The Democrats saw their oppor- 
tunity to score a point with the public by misrepre- 
senting the features of the new Act, and so successful 
were they in their work, and so complete was the con- 
fusion in the popular mind, that a revulsion passed 
over the country, sweeping a Democratic majority 
into both House and Senate. Two years later Cleve- 
land was returned to the White House. 

Looking backwards, it seems preposterous that tKe 
tactics adopted by the Democrats should have been so 
successful and so far-reaching. The reader will 
probably remember having seen posted prominently 
in the store windows, during the second Harrison- 
Cleveland campaign, parallel lines of figures showing 
the prices of selected articles before and after the 
McKinley Tariff went into effect, but neither the 
reader nor the other thousands who also saw these 
placards realized that these exhibits were carefully 
prepared for a definite purpose; that the prices on 



274 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

certain articles were deliberately raised to a fictitious 
point in order to produce an effect, later to be re- 
duced when this effect has been accomplished; that 
some of the articles named on these lists were not 
even indirectly affected by the McKinley Bill; that 
hundreds of pedlers were sent throughout the rural 
districts offering for sale, but with no expectation of 
selling them, five-cent tin cups priced at twenty-five 
cents; twenty-five cent tin pails priced at $1.00, ex- 
plaining to the horrified farmers' wives that these 
prices were necessitated by the Tariff Bill foisted upon 
the country by the unscrupulous Republican Party! 
In one of his later campaign speeches Burrows re- 
marks on this point : 

"In the history of all political Parties in this coun- 
try there was never such a persistent misrepresenta- 
tion as was made during those thirty days. I spoke 
with a gentleman from Massachusetts recently who 
told me that a Free-Trader hired a man with a wagon 
of fish, and bought him a horn, and told him to take 
that wagon-load of fish and carry them through the 
country until they spoiled. He did not care whether 
he sold any or not, so he asked twenty cents a pound 
for them. He was to go to every farmer in the coun- 
try and ask him if he did not want some fish. When 
the old farmer's wife came out, anxious for the fish 
for dinner, she was told that fish had gone up to 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 275 

twenty cents a pound, all because of the McKinley 
Bill ; and the old lady returned to the house and blew 
the horn, and, as her husband came up, she made him 
swear that he would vote against the McKinley Bill 
on account of those fish." 

When the McKinley Bill was completed in com- 
mittee McKinley claimed for the majority that it 
would reduce the customs duties about sixty-one mil- 
lion dollars, while Roger Q. Mills for the minority 
members claimed that it would increase the duties 
about four million dollars. If there was this differ- 
ence of opinion in the minds of the majority and 
minority members of the same Committee, working 
with the same data before them, it is perhaps not to 
be wondered at that the people themselves should be 
so completely befuddled. As a matter of fact, the 
decrease shown by the first year of operation was 
about fifty-two million dollars, which, in itself, is a 
verdict in favor of the intelligent foresight on the 
part of the majority members. 

McKinley himself, defeated for reelection to Con- 
gress by the landslide caused by the Bill, said: "In- 
creased prosperity which is sure to come will outrun 
the maligner and villifier. Reason will be enthroned, 
and none will suffer so much as those who have par- 
ticipated in misguiding a trusting people." * 

tOlcott: "The Life of William McKinley," volume I, page 188. 



276 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

When a nail is driven into a post the hole remains 
even after the nail is withdrawn. The fact that the 
McKinley Tariff was proving successful could not be 
grasped by the voters, even though fully appreciated 
by economists and students of the subject. With the 
return of the Democratic Party to power, business, 
from perfectly natural economic causes, suffered a 
serious depression, which the Democrats used as fur- 
ther evidence of the disastrous effects of the McKin- 
ley Bill. Burrows' retort to this accusation, made in 
the course of his remarks upon the Wilson Bill which 
is to be considered later, is characteristically apt: 

"This general paralysis of business throughout the 
country," he said, "comes solely from the ascendency 
of a political Party pledged to the repeal of the Act 
of 1890, and the substitution therefor of a tariff 
divested of all protective features. With such a 
Party in full control of the Government is it any 
wonder that domestic manufacturers suspend opera- 
tions until advised of the conditions under which they 
must market their output? Business prudence dic- 
tated the suspension of the manufacture of domestic 
fabrics with high-priced labor until the conditions 
should be determined upon which the foreign com- 
peting products should be permitted to enter our mar- 
kets. Importers naturally limited their orders to the 
strict necessities of trade in anticipation of more 



1890] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 277 

favorable conditions. And so manufacturer and im- 
porter alike prudently suspended business until the 
Democratic Party should fix the terms upon which 
they would be permitted to resume. When the judge 
pronounces the sentence of death on the convicted 
felon there is no change in the law, but the victim 
is apt to lose interest in human affairs. On an ocean 
voyage the chart and compass may remain undis- 
turbed, but with a madman at the wheel and a lunatic 
on the bridge the interest of the passengers will be 
chiefly centered in the supply of life preservers." 

In a letter dated October l, 1893, ex-President 
Harrison wrote to Burrows, giving his viewpoint on 
the situation at a time when he could look back upon 
it freed from personal concern : 

From ex-President Harrison 

Indiakapolis, Indiana 

My dear Burrows: 

You know from conversations I have had with you 
that my purpose was in that last message to put a 
mark on the stone by which the receding of our pros- 
perity, which was inevitable, might be seen and meas- 
ured. I can understand how a man may hold to the 
views of the Free-Trader or Tariff Reformer and yet 
be mentally sound and morally sincere; but I cannot 
understand how any man not a subject for guardian- 



278 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1890 

ship can think that a country can pass from the Mc- 
Kinley Bill to the Chicago platform without disastrous 
convulsions, or that when the rough passage has been 
made it will not leave the laboring men with a lower 
scale of wages. My own impression of these people 
is that the intelligent among them did see these re- 
sults, and not a few of them contemplated them with 
favor. I tried to point out in my letter of acceptance 
that so far as the election was a choice between men 
it was of minor importance, but that the choice be- 
tween policies involved stupendous results. The 
conservative Democrats, business men, bankers, etc., 
of the East did not see the distinction. They saw in 
Mr. Cleveland a conservative man, and forgot to take 
account of a Democratic Congress. Their mistake, 
I think, must be apparent to them now. 

But I did not intend to lead into a discussion of 
public affairs; however, of course I continue to feel 
a strong but quiet interest in everything. I am 
spending my days in my library preparing my lec- 
tures for Stanford University, and giving needed at- 
tention to a few important legal matters that I have 
become connected with. 

With the very kindest personal regards, I am 
Sincerely your friend, 

Benjamin Harrison 



CHAPTER X 

Reciprocity. 1889-1902 

WHEN the principle of Reciprocity was written 
into the McKinley Bill a new phase of Re- 
publican legislation began, and over this the struggle 
was long and exciting. James G. Blaine of Maine 
may properly be called the Father of Reciprocity. 
While Secretary of State in the Garfield Administra- 
tion he proposed a Pan-American Congress, but the 
idea did not take concrete form until the last year of 
Cleveland's Administration. When the Congress 
finally convened, Blaine by a curious coincidence was 
again Secretary of State, this time in the Harrison 
Cabinet, and was ready to give to it a hearty welcome. 
Representatives of nineteen independent nations of 
the Western Hemisphere met in Washington in Octo- 
ber, 1889, to consider such points as the method of 
communication between South and North American 
ports; the establishment of a uniform system of 
weights and measures; the possible adoption of a 
common silver coin ; and a plan to arbitrate disputed 
questions which might at any time arise between the 
nations represented at the conference. Blaine him- 



279 



28o BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

self was strongly in favor of the principle of extend- 
ing trade through reciprocal arrangements, and he 
might perhaps have persuaded the Lower House to 
incorporate this principle into the McKinley Bill ex- 
cept for the fact that South America was so strongly 
an agricultural country that high Protectionists 
feared freedom of trade might make it a dangerous 
competitor of the North American Western farmer. 
The idea of Reciprocity was furthermore viewed with 
suspicion, fearing lest commercial freedom should 
finally result in admitting free of duty, or at low 
rates, the wools, hides, lead and copper ores of Cen- 
tral and South America. 

Undismayed by the hostile attitude shown towards 
his pet project on the part of the Lower House, Blaine 
carried the fight on to the Senate. His plan was that 
the United States should retain certain duties until 
the exporting countries made adequate concessions. 
He would use sugar to open Cuban and other South- 
ern markets for the provisions and bread-stuffs pro- 
duced by American farmers. To place a duty on 
hides, Blaine contended, was "a slap in the face to the 
South Americans. . . . Such movements as these 
for Protection will protect the Republican Party into 
a speedy retirement." Senator Aldrich came to 
Blaine's aid, and by slightly modifying his proposi- 
tion succeeded in forcing the measure into the Mc- 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 281 

Kinley Bill. This modification authorized the Presi- 
dent to impose discriminating duties in case Reciproc- 
ity was withheld, instead of permitting him to reduce 
duties if reciprocal privileges were granted. 

Burrows was heartily in sympathy with Blaine's 
idea of Reciprocity, and soon appeared as his spokes- 
man throughout the country. In 1892 the following 
editorial appeared in the Detroit Tribune: 

"A special despatch from Washington to the New 
York Press says: 'Representative Julius Caesar Bur- 
rows has received a document which he will put be- 
hind glass and hang in a gold frame. It is nothing 
less than a letter from James G. Blaine, informing 
Mr. Burrows that he is looked upon as the brightest 
star in the galaxy of Reciprocity advocates, and re- 
questing him to be the exponent of Mr. Blaine at the 
coming Reciprocity Banquet in Boston. Every line 
of the letter is full of compliment for the Michigan 
Representative, so that he is naturally proud of it, 
and looks upon it as one of the greatest prizes of his 
political life.' 

"Mr. Burrows may well be proud of his commission 
from the great author of the Reciprocity policy to 
appear in his place at tonight's banquet in honor of 
the successful issue of that policy. It is superfluous 
to add that the compliment to Michigan's ablest Con- 
gressman is well deserved and excellently placed. 



282 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

Mr. Blaine could not have selected a better represent- 
ative, nor one more fully alive to the merits of his 
scheme of trade expansion. At Mr. Burrows' hands 
the topic of Reciprocity will receive thorough and 
appreciative consideration. In the presentation of 
this subject Mr. Burrows will have the immense tacti- 
cal advantage not only of appearing in behalf of Mr. 
Blaine, but of appearing as the exponent of a policy 
of unqualified success and unquestioned utility. No 
administrative policy of recent date has better justi- 
fied itself or more rapidly won popular favor than 
Mr. Blaine's scheme of trade extension through recip- 
rocal treaties. Something over a year and a half has 
elapsed since Mr. Blaine forced upon the attention 
of the Ways and Means Committee of the House the 
Reciprocity idea, which was some months later incor- 
porated into the McKinley Tariff Law. Less than a 
year has gone by since the conclusion of the first 
Reciprocity Treaty, that with Brazil, which is dated 
February 5, 1891. Following the completion of the 
Brazilian convention, came in quick succession the 
announcement of treaties with Spain, Germany, San 
Domingo, the British West Indies, Guatemala, Costa 
Rica, and Salvador. Negotiations are now pending 
with Columbia and Mexico, and Nicaragua and Vene- 
zuela will probably not long remain outside the Amer- 
ican zollverein. 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 283 

"So much with respect to the carrying into effect 
of the policy which has given the he to every predic- 
tion of its enemies. But, they say, the true test of its 
success should be its efficacy in the promotion of trade. 
This is admitted; but many of the treaties have not 
yet been long enough in force to permit of the read- 
justment of trade relations or to allow our merchants 
to take advantage of the concessions secured. In 
Brazilian and Cuban trade, however, a notably bene- 
ficial influence has been felt, demonstrable statistic- 
ally by trade reports. One more year will tell an 
irrefutable story of trade expansion, the conclusive 
test of the commercial value of Reciprocity. As to 
its popularity, that is a matter of common observation. 
There are no objectors save the envious, and no critics 
except those who would extend Reciprocity to Free 
Trade. 

"Mr. Burrows will thus have a magnificent record 
to present this evening. He will tell of a substantial 
achievement in the domain of statesmanship ; he will 
describe a tangible something that has been done for 
the American people. The distinction of the 
achievement and the doing is Mr. Blaine's, and it con- 
stitutes his chiefest claim upon the gratitude of his 
fellow-citizens." 

The Annual Banquet of the Boston Merchants As- 
sociation, to which the foregoing editorial refers, was 



284 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

held at Hotel Vendome in Boston, January 7, 1892, 
and the speech made by Burrows on that occasion 
became famous the country over because of his boji 
mot, "Protection is defense — Reciprocity is con- 
quest." In the course of his remarks he said: 

"Among the powers conferred upon the National 
Government, under the Constitution of the United 
States, none is more important and comprehensive 
than that which authorizes Congress 'to regulate com- 
merce with foreign nations.' It was the want of this 
power under the Confederation, more than anything 
else, which led to the early abandonment of that form 
of government and the substitution of the Federal 
Constitution. It was Webster, I think, who said: 
'We may invoke all the debates in all the State con- 
ventions, and the expressions of all the greatest men 
in the country, and we shall find it everywhere held 
up as the main reason for the adoption of the Consti- 
tution that it would give to the general Government 
power to regulate commerce and trade.' 

"Some conception may be had of the magnitude of 
the interests thus committed to the exclusive care and 
regulation of the National Government, when the fact 
is recalled that the value of the foreign commerce of 
the United States during the last fiscal year reached 
the unexampled and stupendous sum of $1,729,397, 
000. To regulate by just and wholesome laws this 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 285 

vast and ever-swelling volume of foreign trade, ex- 
tending to every commercial nation on the globe, is a 
task commanding the highest statesmanship and the 
most accomplished diplomacy. 

"The character and scope of the regulations which 
the National Government is permitted to impose are 
nowhere specifically defined and set forth in the Con- 
stitution, unless it be in that provision which author- 
izes Congress to 'lay and collect duties' on imports. 
Under this power the whole volume of our import 
trade may be substantially regulated and controlled. 
It was by invoking this power under the Constitution 
that the first regulation of our foreign commerce was 
secured under National authority. 

"The first Act of the First Congress relating to and 
affecting our foreign trade was passed on the 4th day 
July, 1789, and consisted in imposing a specific 
charge on certain designated imports, the payment of 
which was a necessary prerequisite to the admission 
of such imports into the United States. This was a 
regulation of commerce with foreign nations. . . . 
The declared purpose of this Act was threefold. 
First, 'for the support of the Government' ; secondly, 
'for the discharge of the debts of the United States,' 
and thirdly, 'for the encouragement and protection of 
manufactures.' 

"It must be conceded that whenever duties are im- 



286 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

posed on imports for either or all of the purposes 
named it is a regulation of commerce more or less 
effective according to the purposes for which these 
exactions are imposed, and I may say that these regu- 
lations are never more potent, sweeping, and compre- 
hensive than when made for the encouragement and 
protection of manufactures. 

"This method of regulating trade with foreign na- 
tions by the imposition of duties on imports has been 
pursued from the beginning of the Government under 
all Parties and all Administrations, and will be con- 
tinued as a National pohcy so long as the Republic 
endures. True, rates may be changed, the free list 
enlarged or contracted, as the public exigency may 
require or Party expediency demand ; yet this method 
of regulating foreign commerce will never be wholly 
abandoned. 

"It will be observed that this method of regulating 
commerce applies directly only to our incoming trade, 
and in no degree, unless by indirection, does it affect 
our outgoing commerce. The Tariff Act of 1890 in- 
voked another method of regulating commerce with 
foreign nations, looking not exclusively to our import 
trade, but to our vast and increasing outgoing com- 
merce. It is an easy matter to regulate and control 
the incoming commerce, but it is quite another thing 
so to legislate as to open foreign markets for the sur- 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 287 

plus products of our farms and factories. The pro- 
ductive power of this country is the marvel of nations. 
By the census of 1880 it was disclosed that the value 
of our output in a single year from agriculture, manu- 
factures, mines, forests, and fisheries aggregated the 
fabulous sum of $20,000,000,000. What it is to- 
day as disclosed by the census of 1 890 I am not able 
to state, but that it is greatly augmented cannot be 
questioned. 

"Great as is the capacity of our domestic market, 
which should ever be regarded of the first importance 
in our National economy, yet, when we have supplied 
ourselves, we have still a surplus which must find sale 
in the markets of foreign countries. To reach these 
markets with such surplus, with the advantages in 
our favor as against competing nations, is the great 
problem of modern statesmanship. The Tariff Act 
of 1890 seeks to accomplish this great end, and the 
hour is ripe for its consummation. The great re- 
publics south of us, with their 50,000,000 of people, 
have met us in friendly council, and I am sure there 
has been cemented between us and them a bond of 
enduring friendship which will inure to the commer- 
cial advantages of all alike. If we avail ourselves of 
the opportunity now afforded, the statistician of the 
future will never again record the humiliating fact 
that ... we purchased of these countries $2.19 



288 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

worth for every dollar they took from us. Reciproc- 
ity seeks to cure this inequality of trade. . . . 

"This regulation of commerce has had an auspi- 
cious beginning. Already reciprocal treaties have 
been consummated with five nations and nine colo- 
nies, while at this hour we are negotiating agreements 
of reciprocity with six other nations. I have heard it 
urged in some quarters, with more vehemence than 
knowledge, that this doctrine of Reciprocity, as de- 
clared and applied, was an abandonment of the policy 
of Protection, and an acceptance of the tenets of Free 
Trade. Nothing could be more preposterous. 
There is not the remotest suggestion of Free Trade 
in it. It is fair trade, not Free Trade. We admit 
free of duty into the American market the things we 
do not, or cannot produce . . . and, in return there- 
for, secure reciprocal advantages in the markets of 
the countries supplying these articles. Reciprocity 
strikes down no American industry, cripples no Amer- 
ican enterprise. 

"Reciprocity antagonistic to Protection! Protec- 
tion guards the home market ; Reciprocity reaches out 
to the foreign markets. Protection establishes, 
builds up, and maintains American industries; Reci- 
procity opens a new outlet for the surplus products of 
our farms and factories. Protection gives employ- 
ment to American labor; Reciprocity enlarges the 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 289 

demand for the fruits of that labor, thereby insuring 
uninterrupted and enlarged employment. In a 
word, Protection is defense — Reciprocity is conquest. 

"There is, therefore, no abandonment of the doc- 
trine of Protection, but rather an increased demand 
for its maintenance. Under the policy of Protection 
and Reciprocity, coupled with that other policy, now 
happily inaugurated, of building up our merchant 
marine, and establishing swift and certain mail com- 
munications with the South American republics, 
there will be open to us a new market for the surplus 
products of our farms and factories. We shall re- 
light the seas of the globe with the stars of our flag, 
and the American Republic will hold its place in the 
van of marching empire." 

Reciprocity received a temporary setback when the 
Democratic Party came into power in 1893, as it was 
abolished by the Fifty-third Congress. By this time, 
however, it had become a fundamental basis of the 
Republican faith, — as President Roosevelt later ex- 
pressed it, "Reciprocity is the handmaiden of Protec- 
tion." 

After reading the address before the Boston Mer- 
chants' Association, it is interesting to consider Bur- 
rows' exposition of Reciprocity as it appeared to him 
in 1902, ten years later. It is of particular interest 
to the biographer inasmuch as the antagonistic posi- 



290 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

tion taken by Burrows upon Cuban Reciprocity imme- 
diately following this period has been assumed by 
many to show a lack of consistency. This is what 
Burrows said in 1902: 

"The subject of Reciprocity is attracting wide- 
spread attention of late, so much so that we hear on 
every hand discussion of reciprocity with France, 
with Argentine, with Cuba, with the British West 
Indies, with Canada, and with various other parts of 
the world more or less intimately associated with us 
by ties of friendship or geographical proximity. 
This subject of Reciprocity is not a new one, and it 
would seem as though a question which had been dis- 
cussed with such thoroughness and through as many 
years would have assumed a certain definite and fixed 
aspect which every one would recognize and accept. 
But even after these years of discussion the doctrine 
of Reciprocity at times takes on proportions quite 
beyond those given it by its most sturdy upholders. 
It may be well, therefore, to consider just what Reci- 
procity is and what it is not. 

"The term itself is rather ambiguous, and in the 
abstract it is like those good and homely virtues of 
friendship, generosity, and comity, which need only 
to be mentioned in order to be accepted. Indeed, 
one of the ancient sages has placed Reciprocity as 
foremost among the virtues, so that in the abstract 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 291 

Reciprocity is as much a principle of human action as 
is generosity. But in being generous it is desirable 
first to be just; and so with Reciprocity. When it 
comes to giving it concrete form as an economic prin- 
ciple of commerce and of international intercourse, 
then it becomes necessary to consider those well-de- 
fined limitations designed to give it just, beneficial, 
and practical effect. 

"True Reciprocity has been a cardinal principle in 
our public aff"airs for many years. Those who have 
developed the American system of Protection have 
at the same time advocated Reciprocity, so that these 
two great American principles, Protection and Reci- 
procity, have gone hand in hand, each as a supple- 
ment to the other. It should be borne in mind, how- 
ever, that there have long been distinct and positive 
limitations to the application of this principle of Reci- 
procity. For instance. Reciprocity does not mean 
unfair trade with foreign countries ; it does not mean 
the opening of our vast markets to foreign goods for 
competition with our own goods on equal terms. On 
the contrary, genuine Reciprocity means only such 
concessions to foreign countries as will bring us an 
ample equivalent in trade concessions from such 
countries, coupled with the further and cardinal prin- 
ciple that the products admitted into this market from 
foreign countries must be such as do not compete 



292 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

with any established industry in the United States, or 
will not, if admitted, endanger the stability and con- 
tinuous prosperity of such industry. 

"The essential idea of those whose names have 
been prominently identified with Reciprocity has been 
such an exchange of commodities as would not en- 
danger our own industries. In President McKinley's 
Reciprocity speech at Buffalo he was careful to make 
plain the proper limitation of true Reciprocity. 
Whatever allusions he made, — and there were at 
least three references to foreign trade, — he was most 
careful to guard his expressions so as to conform to 
what has been regarded, and what is, the established 
doctrine on Reciprocity. 

"For instance, speaking of trade arrangements 
with foreign countries, he said: 'By sensible trade 
arrangements, which will not interrupt our home pro- 
duction, we should extend the outlets for our increas- 
ing surplus.' There it is perfectly apparent that 
admitting and recognizing the necessity for a market 
for our surplus products of the farm and of the fac- 
tory, yet he would not secure that foreign market for 
this surplus by any process which would 'interrupt 
our home production.' 

"Again he said, 'We should take from our custom- 
ers such of their products as we can use without harm 
to our industries and labor.' There, again, the doc- 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 293 

trine of Reciprocity was sharply and clearly guarded 
by the expression 'such products as we can use with- 
out harm to our own industries,' showing that he was 
keeping steadily in view the protection of our own 
labor and our own industries. Then, again, in that 
same speech, he said: 'If, perchance, some of our 
tariffs are no longer needed for revenue, or to en- 
courage and protect our industries at home, why 
should they not be employed to extend and promote 
our markets abroad?' While he thus recognized the 
fact, which we all recognize, that some tariffs are no 
longer needed for revenue and could therefore be dis- 
pensed with, yet it will be observed that he even 
guarded cases of that kind with the further expres- 
sion that such tariffs were not to be surrendered as a 
basis for Reciprocity, even if not needed for revenue, 
if they served 'to protect and encourage our industries 
at home.' 

"Such a declaration on the part of William Mc- 
Kinley was but a reaffirmation of what I know to have 
been his lifelong conviction upon the question of 
Reciprocity, and for him in the closing years of his 
public career to abandon the cardinal principle of his 
lifework is not conceivable. 

"So, in a word, I may say that true and just Reci- 
procity is that which admits into this market things 
we do not and cannot produce, in exchange for an 



294 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

equivalent in the market of the country thus favored 
by us. But under no circumstances can we admit 
into this country, either free of duty or at a low rate 
of duty, goods coming in competition with our home 
production and our home labor, which would have a 
tendency to jeopardize the prosperity of either the 
factory or labor. Reciprocal trade based upon ad- 
mitting into this market things we do not produce is 
quite difficult of accomplishment, because of the im- 
portant fact that forty-three per cent, of all our im- 
ports into the United States today come in free of 
duty. Forty-three per cent, of our tremendous 
imports free of duty! With this condition estab- 
lished, of course it is too late to make reciprocal ar- 
rangements with countries already favored by the 
free entry of their goods into our markets. 

"The plea put forward as to the necessity of a for- 
eign market is very much overestimated. It is a fact 
that the industrial output of the United States last 
year, embracing the farm, the factories, the mines, 
and the forest, aggregated $21,500,000,000. Of 
that tremendous aggregate the United States con- 
sumed within its own borders $20,000,000,000, 
leaving but $1,500,000,000 seeking foreign mar- 
kets. Certainly we should be very careful in what- 
ever arrangements we make to protect first the home 
market, which is such an absorbent of home products, 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 295 

and we shall make a frightful blunder to lessen one 
iota the capacity of the home market for the uncer- 
tain and temporary advantage of any foreign market. 

"But if we turn to our foreign markets they seem 
to be in such vigorous health that we could well 
afford to let present conditions alone. Our exports 
during the eleven months ending last November 
reached the enormous total of $1,302,760,535. 
Our imports during this same period aggregated 
$800,426,231. So that, by the latest available sta- 
tistics, the balance of trade is in our favor by $548,- 
463,157. This is a really remarkable showing, un- 
equaled by any other country in the world, either as 
to exports or balance of trade. Why, then, should 
there be any anxiety about not getting our share of 
foreign markets? Our present commanding and 
controlling position in these markets indicates that 
our foreign trade is in a very vital and healthful con- 
dition. 

"It is well to observe, in connection with the cry 
for more foreign markets, that we are today making 
inroads throughout Europe. This is particularly 
true as to England, because that country has Free 
Trade. Germany, France, and Austria raised tariff 
barriers which impeded our entry into their markets; 
nevertheless, we have made advances in spite of all 
their barriers. In fact, if all the markets of Europe 



296 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

were open to us we would drive Europe out of her 
own markets, by reason of our wonderful advance- 
ment in machinery, in inventive genius, and our 
economy in production. 

"Over and above all that comes the great advan- 
tages of our position in the Philippines and the Orient. 
Taking Manila as a center, the country tributary to it 
has a population of more than 800,000,000, with a 
trade commonly called the 'trade of the Orient,' of 
$2,000,000,000. The Orient, so called, bought of 
foreign countries $1,200,000,000 worth of goods, or 
$100,000,000 a month, of which the United States 
unfortunately commanded only nine per cent., and 
yet the goods seeking this market were the very goods 
we produce in the United States, on the farm and in 
the factory, for the surplus of which we are anxious 
to secure a foreign market. It is this vast trade of 
the Orient, in my mind, that affords us the great out- 
let of the future, without Reciprocity for our growing 
surplus. 

"When it comes to considering Reciprocity in the 
light of experience, it can hardly be said that it has 
proved an instrument for opening markets for our 
surplus products. Our treaty with Canada, which 
lasted about ten years, was really most disastrous. 
We sold less to Canada at the end of the period than 
we did at the beginning, while she flooded our mar- 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 297 

kets. In 1854, the year before the reciprocity 
period began, we sold to Canada $24, 1 57,6 1 2. But 
in 1866, after ten years of Reciprocity, our sales to 
Canada were down to $23,439,115. On the other 
hand, Canada benefited enormously. In 1854 she 
was sending us $8,784,412. This soon doubled and 
quadrupled under Reciprocity, and was six-fold, viz., 
$48,133,599, at the close of the reciprocity period. 
No wonder Canada desires by Reciprocity to cross the 
border and gain our vast markets in exchange for her 
small markets. 

"This is a fair illustration of the effect of false 
Reciprocity. Surely it is not such Reciprocity which 
reduces our foreign markets and surrenders our home 
market to the foreigner that we are seeking. On the 
contrary, whatever is done in the line of true Reci- 
procity must be strictly within those well-defined 
limits which experience dictates, namely, that no 
American industry is to be imperiled in its stability or 
prosperity." 

At the time Burrows wrote the foregoing words 
McKinley was serving his second term as President. 
The disturbing problem of the Currency had settled 
down upon an apparently satisfactory basis, and Na- 
tional credit was reestablished. The country, as a 
whole, was prosperous, and the Nation had taken a 
new place before the world which made its position 



298 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

upon all subjects stand out in greater prominence. 
McKinley was heartily in sympathy with the prin- 
ciples and the workings of the Reciprocity policy, as 
he attributed to this in certain measure the advance 
of the country politically as well as industrially. 
"He realized," states McKinley's biographer, "that 
the diversified production made possible by the rapid 
growth of the industries of the country had out- 
stripped the capacity of the home market to absorb it, 
and that the foreign markets must be enlarged by 
broader commercial relations. Reciprocity arrange- 
ments had already been negotiated with France, 
Portugal, Italy, and Germany, and with Great Britain 
for her West Indian possessions ; also with Nicaragua, 
Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic, and with 
Denmark in behalf of the Island of St. Croix. These 
conventions were then pending in the Senate, and it 
was the intention of the President to secure their rati- 
fication, if possible, and then to arrange new treaties 
with other nations. This pohcy, in his judgment, 
would preserve the principles of Protection at home 
and at the same time secure an outlet for the surplus 
products in foreign markets. He saw in the idea the 
supreme development of the theory to which he had 
given so many years of his life." ^ 

Burrows sympathized entirely with McKinley's 

lOlcott: "Life of McKinley," volume II, page 298, 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 299 

attitude, and, in fact, had done his part in bringing 
McKinley to this viewpoint. Burrows, because of 
his earher association with the subject of Reciprocity 
at Blaine's behest, was perhaps more deeply steeped 
than any other man in the Republican ranks with the 
absolute belief that Reciprocity permitted the fullest 
and the ripest expression of Protection. And yet, 
Burrows is classified as an opponent of Reciprocity 
when applied to Cuba ! 

Burrows once made the statement, "Everybody is 
for Reciprocity provided it is at the expense of some- 
body else," and this remark came home to him many 
times during the struggle over Cuban Reciprocity. 
This, in brief, was an effort made by the Roosevelt 
Administration to apply the principles of Reciprocity 
to the little Island for whose independence we had so 
recently become sponsor. In accomplishing this, a 
diminution was proposed of the duty on sugar, which 
was to be offset by a reduction on the part of Cuba of 
duties on imports from the United States of all kinds, 
thus extending the market for our own manufactures 
and the profitable demand for our labor. All this 
would seem to be in the direction of the Reciprocity 
of Blaine and McKinley, and, in part, a consumma- 
tion of Garfield's ideal, "the Protection that leads to 
Free Trade." And yet. Burrows not only arrayed 
himself against this treaty, but succeeded by allying 



300 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

with himself twenty other Senators, in successfully 
blocking the passage of the Bill in spite of the tre- 
mendous pressure brought to bear by President 
Roosevelt and the entire Administrative forces. 
This caused an instant outcry, charging that Burrows 
was protecting the beet-sugar interests of Michigan. 
Some of the attacks were bitter, some were amusing. 
The following, for example, is taken from the New 
York World: 

THE MILK IN THE COCOANUT 

OR 

THE SECRET OF SUPPORT FOR 
RECIPROCITY LAID BARE 

Washington, November 21 

A drama in one short act 

Scene : The White House 
Time: Friday, Nov. 21, 1902 

CHARACTERS 

President of the United States 
Henry Cabot Lodge, a Senator from Massachusetts 
Julius C^sar Burrows, a Senator from Michigan 
Argument: The President desires a Reciprocity 
Treaty admitting dried codfish from Newfound- 
land at reduced rates into the United States in 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 301 

return for tariff concessions for articles made in 
this country, and a Reciprocity Treaty making 
a reduction on the duty on Cuban sugar in re- 
turn for tariff concessions on American-made 
goods. 
Plot: Massachusetts produces dried codfish and 
Michigan produces beet sugar. 

ACT I 

{The President is discovered pacing up and down 
his private office in the White House. Senator 
Lodge sits on one side of the room and Senator Bur- 
rows on the other.) 

The President. "Lodge, what do you think the 
chances are for Cuban Reciprocity this Winter?" 

Senator Lodge. "Excellent, I should say, Mr. 
President. We want to assure you that we, of Massa- 
chusetts, will stand loyally by your Cuban Reciproc- 
ity poHcy in Congress this Winter. We approve it 
and we shall support it, but — 

The President. "But what?" 

Senator Lodge. "But we cannot approve, and 
shall not support your policy as regards dried cod- 
fish. There must be no reciprocity on codfish. We 
produce codfish. As for sugar, which we do not 
produce, we are with you." 

The President (turning to Senator Burrows). 



302 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

"Burrows, what do you think about it? Where does 
Michigan stand?" 

Senator Burrows. "Michigan is loyally with 
you, Mr. President, back to back, firm and united, in 
support of your codfish policy, but — " 

The President. "But what?" 

Senator Burrows. "But we cannot approve, and 
must proceed with extreme caution as regards your 
policy of lowering the tariff on Cuban sugar. We 
produce sugar. We do not produce codfish. We 
stand for you on the codfish proposition." 

T^e President. "Ah-h-h!" 

Curtain 

Here we see the personal application of Burrows' 
witticism. The contention that he was protecting 
the interests of his State was well founded. He was 
one of the few who were wise enough to discern that 
the Bill was really in the interest of the Sugar Trust, 
and that the result of the measure, if enacted, would 
be to cripple all independent concerns outside the 
Trust. The mass of the people believed the specious 
plea that Cuba would be benefited by the proposed 
reduction in the tariff, but Burrows refused to be 
diverted. He contended that in taking his stand he 
was protecting all those interests of all the States 
which the policy of Protection was intended to foster, 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 303 

and was preventing the principle of Reciprocity from 
interfering with the bulwark of protection to Ameri- 
can industries. If we turn back to the quotation 
already made from his speech in 1902 we find that he 
says, "Genuine Reciprocity means only such conces- 
sions to foreign countries as will bring us an ample 
equivalent in trade concessions from such countries, 
coupled with the further and cardinal principle that 
the products admitted into this market from foreign 
countries must be such as do not compete with any 
established industry in the United States, or will not, 
if admitted, endanger the stability and continuous 
prosperity of such industries." Again, he states, 
"True Reciprocity does not involve the destruction of 
American industries or the surrender of American 
markets for American products." ^ 

The struggle in the Senate became historical. 
After three months' work Burrows had allied with 
him against the Bill Senators Perkins and Bard, of 
California; Gamble and Kittredge, of South Dakota; 
Elkins and Scott, of West Virginia; Millard and Die- 
trich, of Nebraska; Nelson and Clapp, of Minnesota; 
Foster, of Washington ; Mitchell and Simon, of Ore- 
gon; Burton, of Kansas; Kearns, of Utah; Pritchard, 
of North CaroHna; Mason, of IlHnois; Jones and 
Stewart, of Nevada; and WeDington, of Maryland. 

iCollier^s Weekly. 



304 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

Elkins joined hands with him in leading the fight, 
but Elkins was opposed to Cuban Reciprocity because 
he believed that this country had done enough for 
Cuba. This alliance held together during the entire 
session of Congress in spite of the personal influence 
brought to bear by President Roosevelt and the pro- 
Reciprocity members of the Senate. Senator Fora- 
ker in a speech spoke of Burrows as the "General 
from Michigan who had stood his forces up to be 
counted and sat them down again." The fact that 
the Sugar Trust was largely interested in Cuban 
plantations became noised abroad, and in June, 1902, 
the Administration gave up its attempt to push the 
Bill through. 

Burrows received congratulations from all parts of 
the country on what was regarded as the greatest feat 
of his Congressional career, and it was generally con- 
sidered that the beet sugar industry in this country 
was safely protected. 

The aftermath to this event is interesting from a 
public standpoint. In the following session of Con- 
gress the Cuban Treaty again came under considera- 
tion in the Senate, and Burrows was again prepared 
to defend the American sugar interests. It suddenly 
developed, however, that there was a notable falling 
off in the activity and interest of the beet sugar manu- 




•l ♦ ♦ t » M » M M ♦ ♦ ♦ ■»-»>-»-M-M-»^.M-»-(-»>^ ^•♦ft M tt«*»»-»»»-» ■»-»♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦■♦♦tt»»»*f»*tT 

CARTOON FROM THE DETROIT "JOURNAl" 
1902 



1902] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 305 

facturers. Several of the chief protestants against 
Reciprocity with Cuba went away, giving various rea- 
sons for not returning; Senators who, in the previous 
session, had been encouraged to take up the cause by 
the representations of these men, now found Httle 
influence being brought to bear upon them; data 
which had been promised to show how the reduction 
in the tariff would cripple the industry, although 
promised, failed to be supplied. Finally it leaked 
out in Washington that several of the leading beet 
sugar factories in Michigan had been bought by the 
Sugar Trust, and Senator Burrows now found himself 
almost without a constituent, when, at the last session, 
he had been flooded with delegations pleading for his 
assistance with tears in their eyes. The National 
Beet Sugar Association expressed itself as willing to 
stand the small differential in the treaty in favor of 
Cuban sugar provided this settled the matter for a 
period of not less than five years. This amendment 
Senator Burrows succeeded in securing. Article 
Eight was amended to make the Cuban differential on 
sugar twenty per cent, for a term of five years. Inas- 
much as those representing the beet sugar industry 
of America expressed themselves satisfied with this 
arrangement, Burrows withdrew further opposition to 
the Bill, and it was passed on this basis. Later, how- 



3o6 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1889 

ever, individual beet sugar growers saw the mistake 
they had made, and tried to enlist Senator Burrows' 
assistance and sympathy; but the treaty had been 
completed, and, under all the circumstances, perhaps 
Burrows had lost some of his original enthusiasm. 



CHAPTER XI 

The Wilson Bill. 1894 

T^TITH the Democrats in full control of both 
' ^ Houses of Congress and of the Presidency for 
the first time in over thirty years, they undertook to 
make good their campaign promises regarding Tariff, 
and signally failed. It was, of course, unfortunate 
for them that while the revision was under way Con- 
gress itself was so frequently interrupted by petty 
discussions regarding the Currency, and it also oper- 
ated against the Party in power to have the revenues 
themselves cut down because of financial disturb- 
ances before any actual progress could be made with 
the new Tariff Bill. The real difficulty, however, 
was that the Party could not come to any definite 
agreement within itself, and President Cleveland was 
entirely out of sympathy with many of his Party 
leaders. 

The new Tariff measure which became known as 
the Wilson Bill was in effect a compromise with those 
Democrats favoring Protection, and, to make it still 
more unpopular, an income tax was added, which was 
later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 



307 



3o8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1894 

The Bill abolished Reciprocity. It became law with- 
out the President's signature, and satisfied no one. 

Burrows, a minority member of the Committee on 
Ways and Means at this time, was the chief spokes- 
man against the Bill, and his speech, extracts of which 
are now given, is of particular value because of the 
analytical comparison which he makes between the 
McKinley Bill as misrepresented and as actually in 
operation, and between the McKinley Bill and the 
proposed new legislation. In the course of this 
speech he supported his statements with skilfully 
selected citations from Daniel Webster and Fisher 
Ames, Presidents Madison, Adams, Jefferson, and 
Monroe ; from Secretaries Hamilton, Gallatin, Dallas, 
Crawford, Meredith, and Sherman; from George C. 
Tichenor, one of the most accomplished and trust- 
worthy Special Agents ever connected with the Treas- 
ury Department ; from Consuls Mason of Basle, Shaw 
of Manchester, and Secretary of the Treasury Howell 
Cobb. The indefatigable study which Burrows put 
upon the subject matter in his debates gave conclusive 
strength to his arguments. In this speech, dehvered 
on January 9, 1 894, he said : 

"The measure now under consideration has for its 
avowed object a radical modification of the Tariff Act 
of 1890. It involves not only a change of rates but 
a complete reversal of an economic policy. The law 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 309 

of 1890 was enacted not only with a view of securing 
revenue for the support of the Government, but for 
the further purpose of giving encouragement to the 
creation of new enterprises, and protection to Ameri- 
can industries and American workmen against un- 
equal and injurious foreign competition. In its 
practical workings it accomplished both these results. 
That Act went into effect October 6, 1890, and as a 
measure for revenue it met, so long as its operation 
was undisturbed, the needed requirements of the Gov- 
ernment. . . . 

"Since the 1st of July, 1893, however, there has 
been a marked decline in the public revenues until 
they have actually fallen below the requirements for 
the public service. ... I venture to suggest, how- 
ever, in this connection, that this decline in the public 
revenues during the present fiscal year is not attribu- 
table to any defect in the law of 1890, but rather to 
the general derangement and prostration of business 
throughout the country. The ascendency of a politi- 
cal Party pledged to the destruction of our protective 
policy has not only crippled and suspended the opera- 
tion of our domestic manufacturers, but the importer 
of foreign fabrics naturally curtails his importations 
in the hope of securing their admission into our mar- 
kets upon more favorable conditions. I confidently 
assert that if the election of 1892 had resulted in the 



310 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1894 

retention of the Republican Party in power, accom- 
panied as it would have been with the assurance of 
the continuance of the American policy of Protection, 
the effect upon the pubhc revenues as well as the 
general prosperity of the country would have been 
entirely reversed. ... If, however, it had failed to 
yield the full measure of such requirement, the defi- 
ciency could have easily been supplied without dis- 
turbing the business interests of the country by a 
general revision of the tariff. . . . 

"As a measure of protection to American industries 
and American labor, the Act of 1890 in its results 
more than justified the prediction of its friends. 
That it would stimulate the development of new en- 
terprises and promote the growth of established indus- 
tries was confidently asserted, but that its beneficent 
effect would be so quickly manifest and so marvelous 
exceeded the highest hopes of the most sanguine. 
It induced capital to embark in untried ventures, en- 
larged the field of labor's profitable employment, 
augmented our domestic and foreign trade, and quick- 
ened with a new life the manifold industries of all our 
people. . . . 

"You said it would develop no new industries, — 
it created them by the hundreds. You said it would 
bring no resultant benefits to our workmen, — it 
secured for them enlarged employment and increased 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 311 

wages. You said it would enhance the cost of the 
protected article, — it cheapened it to the consumer. 
You said it would diminish our foreign trade, — it 
augmented it in 1892 to $1,857,680,610, an increase 
over the previous year of $128,283,604. You said 
it would shut out our products from foreign markets, 
— our export trade increased $145,797,388, swelling 
its volume to $1,030,278,148, the largest ever 
known in the history of the country, and exceeding 
the value of our imports by $202,875,686. You 
said it would paralyze our domestic trade, — it was 
never more vigorous than in the years immediately 
following its enactment. And so every prophecy of 
ill found swift and complete refutation in increased 
industrial activity on every hand, and enhanced indi- 
vidual and National prosperity. 

"We are therefore justified in asserting that the 
Act of 1 890, could its permanency have been assured, 
would have accomplished the double purpose for 
which it was enacted, — revenue and protection. It 
may be answered, however, that the Tariff Act of 
1890 has been in continuous operation since its enact- 
ment and is still in force, and yet under it revenues 
have declined and industries decayed. Conceding 
this to be true, we deny that the existing deplorable 
condition of the country is attributable in any degree 
whatever to the law itself. The McKinley Tariff 



312 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1894 

never closed a mill in the United States, shut up a 
mine, stopped a wheel, blew out a furnace fire, or 
drove a single workman into the streets. This gen- 
eral paralysis of business throughout the country 
comes solely from the ascendency of a political Party 
pledged to the repeal of the Act of 1890, and the sub- 
stitution therefor of a tariff divested of all protective 
features. . . . 

"How easily you might demonstrate the beneficial 
effects of restored confidence! You have but to 
abandon the policy upon which you have entered, 
recommit this Bill, and permit existing tariff regula- 
tions to remain undisturbed, and all our industries 
will quickly revive. ... 

"The first proposition arresting attention in this 
Bill is the proposed transfer of one hundred and 
thirty-one articles from the dutiable to the free fist. 
... It will not escape notice in this connection that 
upon examination of the list of articles thus trans- 
ferred from the dutiable to the free list the interests 
of the farmer seem to have been selected for special 
assault and destruction, as nearly one-half of the items 
embraced in this proposed transfer are the fruits of 
domestic husbandry. . . . 

"Such a proposition would at any time arrest 
public attention, but to be made in the presence of a 
depleted Treasury, and with its Secretary asking to 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 313 

be clothed with power to issue bonds on which he may 
borrow money to meet the current expenses of the 
Government, is a proposition so startUng as to chal- 
lenge the credulity of mankind. There is only one 
explanation possible, and that is found in the excla- 
mation of an Enghsh statesman: 'It is Free Trade 
gone mad.' The present free list ought to be suf- 
ficient to satisfy the demands of the most advanced 
Free-Trader. The Act of 1890 enlarged it to the 
very limit of safety to American industries and Ameri- 
can labor. . . . 

"Heretofore if there was any one class of our peo- 
ple the Democratic Party inveighed against more than 
another it was the manufacturer, but he has now, it 
seems, become the object of your deepest sohcitude, 
while the humble laborer, for whom you have pro- 
fessed so much anxiety in the past, is abandoned to 
an unequal battle with his foreign antagonists. The 
hardy miner, the intelligent flock-master and farmer, 
and all the producers of what you are pleased to call 
'raw materials,' are to be forced to contend unaided 
with the cheapest labor on the globe, that the manu- 
facturer may enjoy the boon of 'free raw material.' 

"Why should not the producers of raw material be 
accorded the same consideration as the manufacturer 
of that material into his finished product? Why 
should the miner in his perilous vocation be utterly 



314 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1894 

abandoned, while the workers in the raw material 
which he produces are given some measure of con- 
sideration? Why should the farmer, having in- 
vested his all in fields and flocks, be forced into an 
unequal competition with Australia and South Amer- 
ica, while the manufacturer of woolen fabrics secures 
some measure of protection? And in this connec- 
tion it is but just to say that the woolen manufac- 
turers as a body demand no such unjustifiable dis- 
crimination. 

"But I notice every 'Tariff Reformer' urges free 
raw material as an indispensable adjunct to the con- 
summation of his theory. 'There is method in his 
madness.' No one understands better than he that 
free raw material will be swiftly followed by free 
manufactured goods. It will be protection for all or 
protection for none. When you force the producers 
of raw material unto unrestrained competition with 
the world, the manufacturers of this raw material 
into the finished fabric will speedily share the same 
fate. . . . 

"The iron in the mountain, the coal in its native 
bed, the trees in the forest, the stone in the quarry, — 
these are raw material in their natural condition, and 
untouched by the hand of labor would remain raw 
material forever, and continue absolutely valueless. 
But when labor touches them, and transforms them to 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 315 
the uses of mankind, that moment they cease to be 
raw material, and become the finished product of in- 
vested capital and expended labor. You may con- 
tinue to delude yourself with the theory that these 
things are raw material, but you will not deceive the 
intelhgent labor of this country, through whose 
mighty energies they are produced. . . . 

"We of the minority intend to resist to the last 
this wanton destruction of American interests. We 
believe in the development of all our industrial re- 
sources to the fullest extent, and to that end would 
extend the same measure of protection to the pro- 
ducers of raw material as to the workers in the more 
advanced product. We would not only be independ- 
ent of foreigners for our manufactured goods, but 
for the raw material out of which they are fabricated. 
I can conceive of no policy more detrimental to 
American manufacturers and American labor than 
the abandonment of the production so far as possible 
of our own raw material. Such a policy would not 
only drive labor from the largest field of its employ- 
ment, but it would dry up one of the most bountiful 
sources of National wealth, and reduce our manu- 
facturing industries to complete dependence on for- 
eign nations for the supply of their raw material. 

"Such a result would be disastrous even to the in- 
terests it is proposed to promote; for when we have 



3i6 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1894 

slaughtered our flocks, closed our mines, and wholly 
abandoned the production of our own raw material, 
the foreigner would take advantage of our helpless 
condition and impose upon us whatever burden his 
cupidity might suggest. We, therefore, would pro- 
tect all interests, whether of the mine or the furnace, 
the field or the factory, to the end that all our people 
may receive profitable employment, and the Nation 
attain its highest possible development. . . . 

"Passing from the consideration of the free list to 
the dutiable schedules, we find here the same spirit 
of hostihty manifested in every provision. There is 
not a schedule in which there are not some industries 
which will be imperiled by the passage of this Bill, — 
many will be utterly destroyed. On the other hand, 
if there is any provision in this Bill which will stimu- 
late a single domestic industry, or give increased em- 
ployment to labor, it has not been pointed out. The 
measure as a whole looks only to lessened industries 
and lower wages. It ought to be entitled 'A Bill to 
lessen the revenue, destroy American industries, and 
pauperize American labor.' The majority seem to 
have been actuated only by the desire to lower duties 
all along the line, regardless of the consequences to 
American industries or American labor. ... I have 
only to say that the Bill as a whole is as unscientific 
as it is un-American. . . . 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 317 
"I shall not pause to call attention to the many 
incongruities in this Bill. . . . There is one criticism 
I would not venture to make, but as it comes from the 
Troy Daily Times, I ask the Clerk to read the follow- 
ing: 

" 'The framers of the Wilson Bill having classified 
hydraulic hose, which is used exclusively for extin- 
guishing fires, among articles of wearing apparel, no 
doubt will remodel that extraordinary measure so as 
to include hydraulic rams and spinning-mules in the 
live-stock schedule.' 

"The most startling feature connected with and 
running through the entire dutiable schedules is the 
general substitution of ad valorem for specific rates. 
Under existing law, duties are imposed wherever pos- 
sible by the yard, pound, or quantity and not accord- 
ing to value. The object of this was to avoid under- 
valuations and insure an honest collection of the reve- 
nues. It was to protect not only the revenues of the 
Government but our domestic manufactures as well. 
In the Committee's Bill this policy is abandoned, and 
five hundred specific rates have been changed to ad 
valorem. If anything was needed in addition to low- 
ered duties to complete the destruction of our pro- 
tective system, it is supplied by the substitution of 
ad valorem for specific rates. Under such a policy, 
coupled with the reductions proposed, revenue and 



3 1 8 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [ 1 894 

domestic industries will alike diminish, and the latter 
in many instances disappear. ... In all continental 
nations excepting the Netherlands ad valorem tariffs 
have been substantially discarded. France, Ger- 
many, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Sweden and Norway, 
Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain, 
as the result of long experience with both systems, 
have settled down to the collection of their customs 
revenues almost wholly to a specific basis. It is more 
than folly, therefore, to attempt to foist upon this 
country a system condemned by a century of our own 
history and the experience of the leading European 
nations. 

"It is not surprising, however, that the Party of 
Free Trade in the United States should make this 
method of levying duties the leading feature of its 
policy. It is a fit accompaniment to this Bill. It 
removes the last safeguard to American industries, 
and strikes down the last hope for our protective sys- 
tem. If there was nothing else in this measure 
deserving public condemnation, this alone ought to 
be sufficient to insure its overwhelming defeat. 

"But the members of the majority seek to secure 
public approval for the destruction of specific duties 
by pluming themselves with a show of lessened ad val- 
orems, hoping thereby to divert public attention and 
secure popular applause. . . . Let me say that the 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 319 

masses of the people, however, at this time are not 
specially enthusiastic over the prospects of lower ad 
valorems. Our workmen are not searching for low 
ad valorems^ but for employment. Shivering by deso- 
late hearths over the expiring embers of the last hand- 
ful of coal, they are not solicitous about ad valorem, 
but fuel. Starving families, clutching for the last 
morsel of food, cannot be lulled into forgetfulness of 
present misery by the announcement of lower ad 
valorems on the necessities of life. Tramping the 
streets, out of employment, receiving alms, lower 
ad valorems will not heal the wounded pride of the 
brave men who never before were dependent on pub- 
lic charity. The laboring people of this country ask 
not lower ad valorems, but work. They prefer high 
ad valorems, constant employment, and abundant 
wages, to low ad valorems, idleness, and want. . . . 
"I implore you to abandon this suicidal policy. 
Have you not pursued it far enough to become con- 
vinced of its disastrous consequences? It is no 
longer an experiment, — it has become a public crime. 
You have it within your power instantly to relieve this 
appalling situation. You have only to substitute for 
the pending measure a joint resolution declaratory of 
your purpose to maintain existing law in full force and 
effect during the continuance of this Administration, 
and business activity would instantly take the place of 



320 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1894 

business depression. It would arrest the slaughter 
of our flocks, open our mines, relight the fires of our 
furnaces, unchain the wheels of our industries, start 
every spindle and loom; while whistles and factory 
bells would call the tramping, starving millions back 
from enforced idleness to profitable employment, and 
the American Republic would leap with a bound to its 
accustomed place in the van of industrial nations." 

As Burrows came to a close, the applause upon the 
floor and in the galleries was so stupendous and pro- 
longed that the speaker was obliged to call the House 
to order. "The Chair begs to remind our visiting 
friends in the galleries," he said, "that such demon- 
strations are not allowable under the rules, and a 
repetition of them will warrant the Chair in having 
the galleries cleared. The Sergeant-at-Arms will be 
directed to remove visitors from the galleries unless 
they cease their demonstrations." 

To this stricture a member of the House retorted, 
"They vote, Mr. Speaker!" 

The Wilson Bill was passed by the House by a vote 
of nearly two to one. Seventeen Democrats voted 
against it, and this dissension presented it to the 
Upper House without the united backing of the major- 
ity Party of the Lower. In the Senate, the Demo- 
crats had a working majority of only three over the 
Republicans and Populists combined, and here Sen- 



1894] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 321 

ator Gorman, of Maryland, and Senator Bryce, of 
Ohio, started in to modify the Bill in principle as well 
as in detail. By the time iron ore, coal, and sugar 
were taken off the free list, specific duties on many 
commodities restored in place of ad valorems, and 
rates generally advanced upon many other articles, 
the Bill as returned to the House was hardly recog- 
nizable. President Cleveland declared that the dis- 
torted document represented "Party perfidy and Party 
dishonor." The Democrats had shown themselves 
clearly afraid to break away from Protection, and the 
result of the contest left them in a position as undigni- 
fied as it was humihating. Even friends of tariff 
revision in the Party admitted that it would have been 
better to continue the McKinley Tariff rather than to 
endorse this nondescript attempt at reform. 



w 



CHAPTER XII 

Currency. 1874-1896 

E saw in an earlier chapter ^ that the financial 
panic of 1873 turned the attention of the 
country away from the reconstruction of the South, 
and focused it upon the subject of the Currency. We 
also saw the far-reaching political effect of this 
reaction in throwing the control of Congress in the 
elections of 1 874 into Democratic hands for the first 
time since i860. Burrows, therefore, received the 
force of this reaction as his baptism in political finance. 
He had taken part, as a fledgling in the Forty-third 
Congress, in the discussion of the "Inflation Bill," and 
had paid his penalty for standing behind the green- 
back; from the side lines he had watched Secretary 
Bristow force the Bill for the resumption of specie 
payments through the expiring Forty-seventh Con- 
gress, recommending, (1) a system of free banking, 
(2) the retiring of greenbacks equal to eighty per 
cent, of the new bank notes issued until the $382,- 
000,000 of greenbacks in existence should be reduced 
to $300,000,000, (3) the withdrawal of fractional 

1 See ante, page 151. 

322 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 323 

paper money and the substitution of silver coin, (4) 
the aboHshment of the charge for gold coinage, (5) the 
resumption of specie payments on January l, 1879; 
he had seen, still from the outside. Resumption actu- 
ally accomplished, under John Sherman as Secretary 
of the Treasury, the despised greenbacks touching par 
a fortnight before the appointed date. That Burrows 
was closely following these events is evidenced by the 
following extract from a speech he made at Madison, 
Wisconsin, during the campaign which returned him 
to Congress : 

"We entered upon a process of paying these green- 
backs," he explained, "and then the Democratic 
Party turned around and said, 'That is unconstitu- 
tional; you must not pay them. Give us more!' 
Almost the whole Democratic Party today is drifting 
and sliding and slopping over for more greenbacks. 
We don't want any more. We want to pay these 
notes ; that is what we promised to do, that is what we 
are bound to do. Now the Democrats say, 'Let us 
have this question to manage, and we will take care 
of them,' — but so will we! We have not forgotten 
what they said about that greenback once when that 
little fellow was first born. His head was puny. He 
looked as though he would not live. We have not 
forgotten that they leaned over the cradle of his 
infancy and said, 'That is a Lincoln scab.' And some 



324 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

of them were so ungenerous as to suggest that it was 
an unconstitutional boy. But it was our child. We 
claimed him, we stood by him; they hissed him and 
called him hard names. He only weighed about 
thirty-three pounds then, but under the guardianship 
and care of the Republican Party he has steadily 
ascended the rugged heights of Resumption, until 
today, in spite of the Democratic Party, he weighs one 
hundred pounds, and stands upon the summit, wear- 
ing a crown of gold and sandals of silver. All we ask 
of our Democratic friends is to let him alone!" 

The fact that this achievement was finally accom- 
plished cannot be wholly attributed to the financial 
wisdom and skill of Secretary Sherman, although he 
was entitled to the greatest credit for the firmness and 
tact displayed throughout. It should be remembered, 
however, that in 1878, for the first time, the United 
States was selling in foreign markets more than it was 
buying. This condition was favorable to the importa- 
tion and the retention of gold, and the fall of prices 
which came with Resumption itself assisted in attract- 
ing gold back to the United States. 

From 1879 to 1888 the Currency question attracted 
only luke-warm interest. Occasionally there was a 
discussion as to the suspension of purchases under the 
Bland Act, or to providing a still freer coinage; but 
this attracted only slight attention on the part of the 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 325 

people. President Cleveland himself was distinctly 
in favor of such suspension, and warned his Party 
and the country at large of the crisis which was sure 
to come through the increased burden being placed 
upon the gold reserve. Even this had Httle effect 
except to antagonize the Silver faction of the Demo- 
cratic Party. 

The prosperity of the country during 1885 and 
1886 was the dust in the eyes of those who accepted 
the arguments of the advocates of the Bland Bill at 
face value. During these years the excess of gold ex- 
ports amounted to $40,000,000, but during the next 
two years a balance of $59,000,000 came back. 
The years 1887 and 1888 were spoken of as "of great 
industrial activity," and 1889 "surpassed all its pred- 
ecessors in the general volume of trade movements." 

As a matter of fact, a large proportion in both the 
Lower House and in the Senate were in favor of Silver, 
but the majority Senatorial attitude had not developed 
to a point where it cared to adopt free coinage. That 
element which had been behind the craze for green- 
backs, checked in 1874 by President Grant, saw in the 
remonetization of silver an opportunity to accomphsh 
nearly the same purpose. 

The Act of 1873 officially discontinued the coinage 
of the silver dollar, and this, for years to come, was 

I Dewey: "Financial History of the United States," page 412. 



326 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

spoken of as the "Crime of 1873." ^^ t^is Act the 
silver dollar mentioned contained 420 grains, and at 
that time the metal in the coin was actually worth 
more as bullion than the sum it represented. A year 
later, however, a fall in the price of silver changed 
the situation, and the fluctuations gave the silver dol- 
lar a value greater than its intrinsic worth. 

Unlimited free coinage of silver would, of course, 
expand the currency, and all the advocates of this 
cause now showed an equal enthusiasm for silver. 
The leader of the Silver forces was Richard P. Bland, 
of Missouri, and his Bill passed the House of Repre- 
jentatives November 5, 1877, by a vote of 163 to 34. 
In the Senate, however, a lii lit was placed upon the 
volume of coinage, owing to the influence of Senator 
Allison : it made the silver dollar again full legal ten- 
der, and gave the Secretary of the Treasury authority 
to purchase silver bullion at market price in quantities 
of from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 worth per month 
to be coined into dollars. Silver certificates were also 
authorized. President Hayes vetoed this Bill, but it 
was passed over his veto. This Act required a mini- 
mum expenditure of $24,000,000 a year in pur- 
chasing a commodity which was falling in value, and 
which must inevitably become a lien upon the gold 
assets of the country. 

Burrows was not in Congress at the time the Bland- 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 327 
Allison Bill was passed, but as it continued in opera- 
tion until 1890 he had ample opportunity to follow 
the results of its enactment. In 1884, McCulloch, 
Secretary of the Treasury, announced that unless the 
coinage of silver dollars was suspended there was 
danger that silver and not gold would become the 
metallic standard; in the following year Secretary 
Manning warned Congress that the hoarding of gold 
had already begun, and recommended the suspension 
of a compulsory coinage. In spite of this, the legis- 
lators pursued the even tenor of their way, while the 
people became more and more restless without fully 
reahzing what it was which was operating unfavorably 
upon their previous business prosperity. 

By 1890 the people awoke to the situation, and for 
the next eight years the Currency question became the 
most serious political problem. With Harrison's 
election Congress felt the pressure of its constituents 
sufficiently to take immediate action, and the Sherman 
Silver Purchasing Act and the McKinley Tariff Act 
came before its members during the same session. 
This was in a way unfortunate, as it was inevitable that 
certain compromises had to be made on both sides in 
order to secure the passage of both Bills. 

The Sherman Act, which finally passed July 14, 
1890, differed from the Bland Act in the following 
points: the monthly purchase of silver was increased; 



328 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

treasury notes were to be full instead of partial legal 
tender; treasury notes could be redeemed at the dis- 
cretion of the Secretary in either gold or silver coin. 
After July l, 1891, standard silver dollars were to be 
coined only as necessary for the redemption of the 
notes. 

It will be seen by this that the Sherman Law, while 
providing for the purchase of all the American product 
of silver, did not admit unlimited coinage. The Act 
declared for the maintenance of gold and silver on a 
parity each with the other. By the Bland Act the 
annual addition to the currency grew larger as the 
price of silver fell; by the Sherman Act the annual 
additions grew less. 

The passage of the Sherman Law of 1890 caused 
untold confusion in the ranks of the RepubUcan Party. 
It was distinctly a compromise, conceding much to the 
Silver element, and yet failing to satisfy them, while 
the Sound Money wing of the Party fully realized the 
danger contained in the concessions which had been 
made. President Cleveland complained that it pro- 
vided an endless chain, as the notes were presented 
for redemption, paid out, and then again redeemed 
until the gold reserve was nearly exhausted. Even 
Bland, the author of the earlier Act of 1878, and still 
the father of Free Silver in Congress, pronounced the 
Act "a masterpiece of duplicity and double dealing." 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 329 

With the passing of the McKinley Tariff Act the 
Sound Money Repubhcans in 1891 undertook to 
repeal the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act, and Sher- 
man himself acknowledged that the law had proved 
ineffective. These efforts, however, proved unsuc- 
cessful, while the Silver element in the Fifty-second 
Congress nearly succeeded in passing through a bona 
fide Free Coinage Bill reported by Bland, who was at 
this time Chairman of the Committee on Coinage. 
That this Bill was not passed through was due wholly 
to Burrows, and the episode itself is one of the most 
interesting which ever occurred in Congress. As far 
as Burrows is concerned, it is a further evidence of his 
astuteness as a parliamentarian. The episode is 
described in Harpefs Weekly, of April 9, 1892: 

"When Mr. Crisp was elected Speaker of the Fed- 
eral House of Representatives no well-informed person 
doubted that a Free Coinage Bill would be passed by 
that body. The anti-Silver Democrats based their 
hopes on the Senate, and especially on the Senate 
Finance Committee, which was known to be disposed 
to settle the Silver issue by means of an International 
Monetary Conference. The character of Mr. Crisp's 
Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures only 
confirmed the belief that a Free Coinage Bill would 
pass the House as the same Bill passed it in 1878. 

"The fight on the Silver question has been in 



330 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

progress ever since the opening of the session. The 
Tariff question, which, it was anticipated, would afford 
the leading topic of discussion, was pushed into the 
background. The Ways and Means Committee did 
not take the lead of the House in legislation. The 
meetings of the Coinage Committee became more 
interesting than those of any other committee. Mr. 
Bland's purposes were known ; there was no question 
as to where he would stand. For nearly twenty years 
he had been knocking at the statute-book for the 
admission of a Free Coinage Act. But with his fol- 
lowers it was different. Some of them, it is true, were 
as sincere and honest advocates of Free Coinage as 
Mr. Bland. Others were for the Bill because their 
constituents were believed to demand the free coinage 
of Silver. These two classes were not to be moved 
by argument or entreaty. Their consciences or their 
interests stood in the way. There was a third and 
large class, however, who believed that it was 'good 
politics' to advocate Free Silver. Upon this class the 
anti-Silver men worked. Neglecting for the time the 
merits of the question, they appealed to the Free Silver 
men as Democrats, and undertook to prove to them 
that the introduction of the Free Silver issue into the 
Presidential campaign would necessarily complicate 
the contest, would divert the struggle from the issues 
on which the Democrats had won their great majority 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 331 

in Congress in the elections of 1890, and would en- 
danger, if not destroy Democratic chances in the three 
Eastern States, — New York, New Jersey, and Con- 
necticut, and in the hopeful group of States of the 
Northwest, at the head of which stands Wisconsin, 
whose Democratic Legislature had pronounced em- 
phatically against Free Coinage. 

"Finally the vote on the question of considering 
the Bland Bill was taken, and the majority in favor 
of the proposition was discouraging. It seemed as 
though the work of persuasion and argument had gone 
for nothing. Nevertheless, the fight was maintained. 
Telegrams, letters, and petitions poured in. Through 
the efforts of the New York World, begun within four 
days of the time set for consideration, a petition signed 
by 6000 Democrats was presented. It urged the post- 
ponement of the Bill until after the Presidential elec- 
tion. This appeal to Party loyalty was for a time 
unheeded. The debate began on Tuesday, March 
22, and proceeded until Thursday afternoon, when 
Mr. Bland moved the previous question. To this 
time the Free Coinage men had confidently counted 
on a majority of forty on the final vote. 

"Then it was discovered that the work of the anti- 
Silver men had accomplished wonderful results. To 
the surprise of every one, Mr. Burrows, of Michigan, 
the cleverest parliamentarian on the Republican side 



332 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

of the House, moved to lay the Bill on the table. The 
Speaker himself was astonished at the audacity of the 
motion, and Mr. Burrows was obliged to call his atten- 
tion to the rule in order to convince him that a motion 
to lay on the table takes precedence of a motion for 
the previous question. The Speaker acquiesced, 
although he must have been reluctant, for through- 
out the whole evening he plainly showed that it was 
his purpose to force the passage of the Bill if it was 
in his power to do so. Speaker Crisp is a determined 
man, and believes in doing his utmost for the cause 
in which he is for the moment enlisted. As the roll- 
call went on the excitement in the House became 
intense, for it was seen that the vote would be very 
close, and the fate of the Bill would be settled if 
Mr. Burrows prevailed. As it turned out, the vote 
was 148 for tabling and 147 against. The Speaker's 
vote was needed, and he gave it, making the vote a 
tie. As a majority was required to lay the Bill on the 
table, Mr. Burrows' motion was defeated. 

"The surprise of the Free Silver men was complete, 
and their anger was intense. They were ready to 
adopt any method that would secure the passage of 
their favorite measure. They were even ready, as it 
turned out subsequently, to resort to practices that in 
the last Congress they denounced as tyrannical. Mr. 
Bland himself seemed dazed. Mr. Outhwaite moved 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 333 

to adjourn. If that motion had been carried, the Bill 
would have been displaced. Mr. Bland rallied, and 
defeated the motion, the Repubhcans helping him. 
Then Tom Johnson, of Ohio, who voted with the Free 
Silver men for the purpose, moved to reconsider the 
vote by which Mr. Burrows' motion was lost. Mr. 
Bland moved to table Johnson's motion. He was 
now in his turn defeated by a tie vote, 145 to 145, so 
that the anti-Silver men had another opportunity to 
table the Bill. 

"And now came a great wrangle with the Speaker. 
On the previous roll-calls he had on his own motion 
ordered the clerk to recapitulate the vote, that is, to 
read it over for the correction of errors. On John- 
son's motion he simply announced the vote, and 
declared it lost by a tie vote of 148 to 148. The 
announcement was greeted by a storm of indignation. 
Members shouted their protests. Demands for a 
recapitulation were made. The Speaker denied 
them, on the ground that they were made after the 
result of the vote was declared. He was reminded 
that he had himself ordered the recapitulation on pre- 
vious votes, and that on this occasion he had given no 
opportunity for a demand. He was angrily told that 
the vote as declared was wrong. Finally Mr. Bland, 
with the fairness that characterized him throughout, 
said that if any member doubted the accuracy of the 



334 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

count he hoped that there would be a recapitulation. 
The Speaker acceded, and the recapitulation showed 
errors enough to carry Johnson's motion. 

"Burrows' motion then came up once more, was 
then lost, and after a parliamentary struggle Mr. 
Bland himself moved the adjournment. The Bill 
was subsequently killed for the session by the Speak- 
er's refusal to apply cloture. 

"In this exciting parliamentary struggle Mr. 
Bourke Cockran was the conspicuous figure on the 
Democratic side. His was the voice and presence 
and tireless energy. With him were Tracey, Fitch, 
and Warner, of New York, and George Fred Williams, 
of Massachusetts, while aiding him with their great 
parliamentary resources were ex-Speaker Reed and 
Burrows. It was a great victory nobly won." 

A full page cartoon in Puck amusingly illustrates 
the public importance of Burrows' strategy. He him- 
self gives the following explanation of the episode: 

"In the Silver fight I put the motion to lay the Bill 
on the table. This was to place on record those 
Democrats who were manoeuvering to side-track the 
Bill without committing themselves on the question 
at issue. Then I voted myself, a id instructed my 
allies to vote against the motion, — that was, for the 
consideration of the Bill, though opposing the pohcy 
it advocated. This was to force Democrats who were 








Tir ■ 






1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 335 

still trying to straddle the question to take a final 
stand, from which there would be no hope of retreat. 
It was urged that in this I juggled with a vital prin- 
ciple, but inasmuch as I knew the Bill could not 
become a law there was ultimately possible no sacri- 
fice of any public interest, and the end to be gained 
was confusion added to the defeat of the enemy." 

At the National Conventions in 1892 the platforms 
of both Parties were intentionally ambiguous on the 
subject of Free Coinage, but each demanded parity 
in the value of gold and silver. Almost before the 
National Convention had adjourned, the Senate again 
passed a Bill for the unlimited coinage of silver, but 
it was killed in the House by a vote of 154 to 136. 
The renomination of Cleveland for President, and his 
well-known views against Free Coinage, undoubtedly 
influenced the Democratic Representatives. 

The facts connected with the panic of 1893 make it 
the most difficult to analyze of any of the panics which 
have overtaken the United States. The year 1892 
was conspicuous because the volume of its business 
transactions went beyond that of any other year in 
the history of the country; all records were broken 
in trade with foreign countries; railroads increased 
their tonnage; there was a favorable money market 
in relation to business; and the record of business 
failures was the smallest for ten years. Students of 



336 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

commercial affairs who were able to see below the 
surface found it impossible to convince the people 
that other conditions existed which made it certain 
that there was trouble ahead. The average man, 
whose business was progressing under prosperous 
conditions, not being a student of finance, found it 
difficult to understand that the continuation of heavy 
gold exports was significant. 

When the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad went 
into bankruptcy, quickly followed by the stock panic 
of January 20, 1893, it became apparent that the 
signs which had been accepted as those of prosperity 
were merely superficial. By April 15 Secretary of 
the Treasury Carlisle issued a notice that further issue 
of gold certificates for gold in the Treasury would be 
suspended, this action being necessitated by the fact 
that the gold reserve had fallen below $ 1 00,000,000. 
A week later. President Cleveland declared that every 
power of the Administration would be exercised "to 
keep the public faith and to preserve the parity 
between gold and silver, and between all financial 
obligations of the Government." The financial hori- 
zon during the next two months became darker and 
darker, failures following one another until each man 
who had succeeded in protecting his own solvency 
wondered if his own turn would not come next. It 
became necessary for banks in New York, Boston, and 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 337 

Philadelphia to issue clearing-house certificates in 
place of currency, and when, on top of all, the British 
Government closed the mints of India to the free 
coinage of silver, it became obvious that silver could 
not be supported by any international agreement. 
By August, currency had reached a premium of three 
per cent. 

Congress was called in extra session on August 7. 
When it convened. President Cleveland asked the 
absolute repeal of tl\e Sherman Silver Purchase Law, 
and the House of Representatives responded promptly 
to his demand. Burrows took an active part in the 
debate, and the following extracts from his speech, 
delivered on August 25, 1893, give an excellent pic- 
ture of the conditions and a comprehensive statement 
of the situation : 

"On the 30th day of June just past, and within a 
period of less than four months from the time the 
Democratic Party assumed full control of the execu- 
tive and legislative branches of the National Govern- 
ment, the President of the United States pubhcly 
announced to the country and the world that 'there is 
general distrust and apprehension concerning the 
financial situation of the country; that it pervades all 
business circles; that it has already caused great loss 
and damage to our people; and that it threatens to 
cripple our merchants, stop the wheels of manufac- 



338 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

tures, bring distress and privation to our farmers, and 
to withhold from our workingmen the wage of labor' ; 
and that he is therefore constrained 'to convene Con- 
gress in extraordinary session to the end that the peo- 
ple may be relieved, through legislation, from pend- 
ing danger and distress.' 

"Forty days later, and on the 8th day of the present 
month, the President, by message, advises the assem- 
bled Congress that 'there exists an alarming and 
extraordinary business situation involving the welfare 
and prosperity of all our people,' and that he had 
convened Congress that the 'present evils may be 
mitigated and dangers threatening the future may be 
averted.' 

"These conditions as thus described by the Presi- 
dent are not today materially changed. There exists 
at this time the same 'alarming business situation,' the 
same 'dangers' seem to be 'threatening the future,' 
and if the President of the United States could for a 
moment have his attention diverted from his pisca- 
torial sports at Buzzards Bay he would not only observe 
the continuance of this deplorable condition, but if he 
would listen he would hear the ominous tramp of a 
multitude of the unemployed which no man can num- 
ber, fresh from the mine and the factory, carrying 
above them now not the delusive banner of 'Tariff 
Reform,' but the black flag of distress and despera- 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 339 

tion, and demanding food for themselves and their 
dependent families. 

"Such is the startling condition existing in our 
country today. . . . What is it that in the brief space 
of six months has plunged this Nation, with all its 
colossal interests, from the summit of prosperity and 
hope to the depths of adversity and despair? When 
we know the cause we can intelligently apply the 
remedy. . . . 

"The President of the United States, in his procla- 
mation convening Congress, declared that 'this con- 
dition is the result of a distrust and apprehension 
concerning the financial condition of the country, and 
that it is the outgrowth of a financial policy embodied 
in unwise laws which he is compelled to execute until 
repealed.' The country was left in much uncertainty 
as to the laws referred to in this proclamation, but the 
message removes all doubt by specifying the Act of 
1890, commonly known as the Sherman Law, as the 
fruitful source of all our woes. While I am frank to 
admit that that measure in its practical workings has 
been a disappointment to its friends, yet I do not 
believe that it is responsible in any considerable 
degree for the deplorable condition in which we find 
the country today. 

"It will be remembered we commenced buying sil- 
ver under that Act on the 13th day of August, 1890, 



340 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

and we continued these purchases through 1890, 
1891, and 1892, without any alarming symptoms of 
approaching disaster; and not until after the Presi- 
dential election last November did the business inter- 
ests of the country take alarm, and stringency in the 
money market begin to appear. If the operation of 
this law is the fruitful source of the widespread disas- 
ter we witness today, is it not a little remarkable that 
it was not made manifest during the first two years of 
its existence? I cannot believe that this deplorable 
condition is to be attributed to an Act which increased 
the circulation of this country more than three mil- 
lions of dollars a month in good, sound currency ; and 
I cannot believe that labor has been driven out of 
employment and into the street because of the bad 
character of our money. I do not believe the people 
hide money, as they are doing now and have been for 
the last sixty days, because they have any suspicions 
as to the soundness of that currency. 

"I do not believe that great business enterprises 
have been abandoned, once prosperous industries shut 
down, because of a suspicion that our money was not 
secure. The fact is that at this very moment our 
entire volume of currency, whether of gold, silver, or 
paper, is worth one hundred cents on a dollar, every 
dollar being kept at a parity with every other dollar. 
I am constrained to believe that the real cause of this 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 341 

widespread business depression is attributable chiefly 
to the hostile attitude of the Democratic Party toward 
our protective poHcy, under which for the last thirty 
years the Nation has wrought its marvelous industrial 
independence. This money stringency, which is of 
recent date, was, it will be remembered, preceded by 
business paralysis all over the country. 

"As soon as the result of the last Presidential elec- 
tion was known, and that the people had actually 
affirmed the declaration of the Democratic platform 
that a Protective Tariff was 'unconstitutional,' and 
that hereafter we were to have a 'tariff for revenue 
only' with no element of protection in it, that moment 
the manufacturers put out their fires, labor was 
reduced in its employment or wholly discharged, men 
abandoned great business enterprises which they had 
in contemplation, and in every way curtailed their 
expenses that they might save something from the 
general wreck which was sure to follow the inaugura- 
tion of Free Trade in this country. 

"I have heard it suggested that this could not be 
the cause for the reason that as yet there had been 
no change in our tariff law. Neither has there been 
any change in our financial policy, and yet the Presi- 
dent declares that there is an 'apprehension' as to our 
financial situation which is the 'fruitful source' of 
our present disorder. So I say it is the 'apprehen- 



342 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

sion' of a change in our industrial policy that has 
brought this general suspension of business and uni- 
versal distrust. Apprehension of danger is sufficient 
to put prudent men on their guard. Would it be 
necessary for a person actually to go over Niagara 
Falls to be convinced that the expedition is attended 
with disastrous consequences? If a Party in this 
country today should declare in favor of the enslave- 
ment of the black race, and that Party receive the 
indorsement of the people on that issue, would it not 
occasion much trepidation among the people of color? 
The people are not igorant of the results which would 
follow the inauguration of Free Trade in this country. 
We have had three periods of a low-revenue tariff dur- 
ing our National existence, — 1816, 1832, 1847, — 
and each one of these eras was attended with general 
distress and bankruptcy, supplemented with the most 
serious panics this country has ever seen. . . . 

"But, whatever the cause, the situation is before us, 
and we must deal with it as best we can. It is un- 
fortunate that the House in all its membership is not 
free to legislate. The President in his proclamation 
convening Congress invited 'all those who are entitled 
to act as members of the Fifty-third Congress to con- 
vene in extra session,' but under a rule adopted by 
the majority, without consultation with the minority, 
no member of the minority is permitted to offer any 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 343 

amendment to the propositions suggested by the 
majority. So far as legislation is concerned, or any 
suggestions from the minority, we might as well have 
remained at home. We can only vote with one or the 
other of the warring factions of the Democratic Party, 
and only on the propositions which they in their wis- 
dom have seen fit to submit. 

"What are these propositions? First, the repeal 
of the Act of 1890, known as the Sherman Law; 
second, the reenactment of the law of 1878, known 
as the Bland- Allison Law; and third, the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver upon some agreed ratio 
from 16 to 20 to l. 

"Upon the first proposition, to repeal the purchase 
clause of the Sherman Act, I have no hesitancy in giv- 
ing it my support, for the reason that it is unsound in 
principle, and in its practical workings it has disap- 
pointed its friends, and if continued would, in my 
judgment, result disastrously to the country. ... In 
the execution of this law all Secretaries of the Treas- 
ury have redeemed these notes in gold. The prac- 
tical workings, therefore, of this measure result in 
exchanging the gold in the Treasury for silver bullion. 

"The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Hooker) 
the other day suggested that these Treasury notes 
ought to be redeemed in silver dollars, and that the 
Secretary of the Treasury has erred in insisting on 



344 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

their redemption in gold. A moment's reflection I 
am sure will satisfy the gentleman that his position 
is not tenable. . . . These notes represent gold val- 
ues, and for the Government of the United States to 
redeem them in silver dollars worth fifty-seven cents, 
would be a piece of financial dishonesty which ought 
to discredit a Government as it would certainly dis- 
grace an individual. In the next place, if the present 
Secretary of the Treasury had carried out what was 
reputed at one time to be his intentions, — to redeem 
these Treasury notes in coined silver, — he would at 
once have landed this Government on a silver basis, 
and seriously impaired its now unquestioned credit. 
And I venture to suggest, in passing, that the rumored 
purpose of the Secretary of the Treasury in this regard 
sounded the note of alarm in our great money and 
business centers. 

"Now, what has been the resultant effect of this 
purchase clause of the Sherman Act? We made our 
first purchase of silver under it on the 13th day of 
August, 1890, and from that day until August 13, 
1893, a period of exactly three years, we purchased 
162,102,772 ounces of silver bullion, equal to 5,558 
tons, and we issued in payment therefor notes of the 
Government, today outstanding, of $151,081,492, 
every one of which must be redeemed by the Treas- 
ury of the United States in gold. Does it need any 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 345 

argument to show that the continuation of such a 
poHcy as that would result in depleting the Treasury 
of the United States of every dollar of gold we possess, 
and putting in its stead a mountain of uncoined silver 
bullion? When the paper given for this bullion 
must be redeemed in gold, is there any question that 
gold will disappear from the Treasury as fast as these 
notes are presented for redemption? It needs no 
argument to show that this policy cannot be continued 
as a permanent financial system. It must be aban- 
doned sooner or later, and the sooner it is abandoned 
the less will be the loss sustained by the Government. 

"This silver bullion in the Treasury of the United 
States is absolutely useless. We cannot coin it, 
because the law does not permit it; neither can we 
sell it, and if we were to sell it at the market price 
of silver bullion today— 72 cents an ounce — that for 
which we paid $151,081,492 would bring only 
$1 16,713,895, entailing a loss upon the Government 
of $34,367,597. The loss, however, would probably 
far exceed that, for if we should authorize the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury to put this silver on the market 
and dispose of it, that moment silver would decline 
to a point hitherto unknown in its history, and the 
loss to the Government would be simply incalculable. 

"It was argued in favor of the passage of this law 
at the time of its enactment that the reason why silver 



346 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

had declined was because the Government had dis- 
carded it in a large measure, and was only coining it 
in limited quantities, and it was contended that if we 
would utilize more of the silver that it would advance 
its price and more readily bring it to a parity with 
gold, whereby its free coinage could be safely author- 
ized. But time has demonstrated that this assump- 
tion was without foundation, for on the 13th day of 
August, 1890, we paid for our first purchase of silver 
under this Act $1.13 an ounce, and on the 13th day 
of August, 1893, we paid 73^4 cents an ounce, show- 
ing a decline in three years of 40 cents an ounce, while 
during this same period the highest price we paid for 
silver was on the 27th of August, 1890, when we 
paid $1.2034? and the lowest on July 24, 1893, when 
we paid 6954 cents per ouce, a difference between 
the highest and lowest price of 50 cents an ounce. 

"But this law, it is said, serves to increase the cur- 
rency. We purchase silver and give our notes, which 
are made a legal tender, and which pass into the mone- 
tary circulation of the country. While this is true, 
I venture to say that that is an unwise financial policy 
which runs the Government in debt for a product it 
cannot use for the purpose of increasing its volume 
of money. No government on the face of this earth 
ever adopted such a policy as that but our own, and 
I doubt if a like policy can be found in all history. 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 347 

We might as well buy copper, or iron, or wheat, or any 
other product that the Government cannot use, store 
it in Government warehouses, and issue our promise 
to pay therefor to be used as money. We certainly 
ought to be able in some way to supply the people of 
this country with a sufficient volume of currency with- 
out resorting to a method so questionable as this. 
We ought to be able to increase our circulation with- 
out increasing our debts. I shall, therefore, vote 
cheerfully for the repeal of the purchase clause of 
the Sherman Act, because I beheve it to be unsound 
in principle, and if continued will be attended with 
disastrous results. 

"But the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Hepburn) 
would not repeal this Act because it would be a con- 
fession that it was the cause of the present disaster. 
By no means. I am aware the Democratic Party at- 
tributes the present condition to the Sherman Law, 
and that is an additional reason why I would repeal it. 
I would tear down this shelter and drive the Demo- 
cratic Party out into the open, where it will be con- 
fronted with the evidences of its disastrous Tariff 
policy. 

"I have heard it intimated, and by the gentleman 
from Nebraska (Mr. Bryan),* himself a member of 
the Democratic Party, that this ought not to be 

iThis was Mr. Bryan's first appearance in behalf of Free Silver. 



348 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

repealed until something is agreed upon to take its 
place, and the gentleman from Nebraska announces 
that the message of the President favoring the repeal 
of this law is the 'burial of silver,' and then exclaims : 
'Abandon hope, all you who enter here !' Let me say 
to my young friend that that is an old sign that has 
been hanging on the outer wall of the Democratic 
Party for over fifty years, and I am surprised he has 
just discovered it. . . . 

"If the Democratic Party does not continue both 
gold and silver in our monetary system, and maintain 
that money at a parity, then they are false to Party 
pledges, and will be rebuked by the people. The 
Republican Party is in favor of bimetallism — of the 
use of both gold and silver in our monetary system; 
and it not only believes in it, but it has legislated so 
as to secure it. For fifteen years we have maintained 
gold and silver at a parity, and today we have four 
hundred and nineteen millions of coined silver dol- 
lars; one hundred and fifty-one millions of Treasury 
notes representing silver purchased, or nearly six hun- 
dred millions of silver currency which we are main- 
taining in our circulation on a parity with gold, and 
propose to maintain it as a part of our monetary cir- 
culation, thus utilizing both gold and silver, and keep- 
ing them at a parity. 

"In the face of this legislation on the part of the 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 349 

Republican Party, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. 
Bryan), I have no doubt, joined his Party in the last 
election in denouncing this policy of the Republican 
Party as a 'cowardly makeshift,' and appealed to the 
people to overthrow that parity in the interest of a 
Party pledged to establish a wiser and safer financial 
policy. The opportunity is now with you to redeem 
your pledges, and continue to utilize both gold and 
silver in our monetary system, and maintain bimetal- 
lism as we have safely established it. 

"The next proposition submitted by the majority 
is the restoration of the Act of 1878. I shall not 
detain the House long with a discussion of this propo- 
sition. That was an Act which directed the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury to purchase at least two million 
dollars' worth of silver bullion every month and coin 
it into standard silver dollars at 412^/2 grains. The 
only material difference between that Act and the Act 
of 1890 is that the former required the silver pur- 
chased to be coined, and the Act of 1890 does not. 
And if there are degrees of evil, then the Act of 1878 
is worse than the Act of 189O; for under it we were 
coining 37 1 /4 grains of pure silver into a silver dol- 
lar, and with the stamp of the Government certifying 
it to be a dollar, when intrinsically it was worth much 
less. Under the operations of that Act we coined 
$378,166,793, and that, together with the coinage of 



350 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

the trade dollar and the coinage under the Act of 
1890, makes a sum total of silver coinage already 
stated at $419,294,835. 

"Yet of this vast sum of coined silver dollars the 
Secretary of the Treasury advises us that on the 1st 
day of June, this year, only $58,000,000 of it was in 
circulation, the balance being in the Treasury of the 
United States, and represented in our circulation by 
silver certificates. If the coin will not circulate, as 
seems to be the case, why convert the bullion into 
coin ? Better continue the present law, purchase sil- 
ver and issue our notes therefor. But one of the 
most effective arguments used at the time in favor of 
the passage of the Act of 1878 was that we demone- 
tized silver in 1873, and that Act caused silver to 
depreciate, and that if we would remonetize it even in 
part it would at once advance the price of silver and 
bring it to a parity with gold. 

"It has been demonstrated that this assumption was 
without foundation, for while the value of the bullion 
in the silver dollar in 1877 ^^^ 92 cents, after twelve 
years of coinage, in 1889, the silver in the silver dol- 
lar was worth only 72 cents, or the value of the bullion 
in the silver dollar at the end of twelve years had 
declined 20 cents. 

"When this Bill was passed in 1878 President 
Hayes promptly vetoed it as being unwise financial 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 351 

legislation, but it was passed over his veto, and I shall 
have no hesitancy in voting against its reenactment. 

"The third proposition submitted is the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver upon a ratio of somewhere 
between 16 and 20 to 1. I have but a word to say 
in relation to this proposition. None of these ratios 
represents the commercial ratio. Coin your silver 
dollar in the ratio of 16 to 1 or 20 to l and you have 
a dollar intrinsically worth less than the gold dollar, 
and coin such a dollar as that — permit the owners of 
silver bullion to bring to the mints of the United 
States and have manufactured into dollars a certain 
number of grains, worth in bullion much less than 
when they are coined, is a proposition to which I 
cannot give my assent. 

"But it has been stated in the course of this debate 
and repeatedly asserted that the present silver dollar 
is the 'dollar of the fathers.' That statement is not 
true. It is not the 'dollar of the fathers,' and the 
fathers if living would repudiate such an assumption 
as a reflection upon their integrity and sagacity. The 
silver dollar of the fathers was intended to be and was 
in fact exactly equal to the gold dollar in intrinsic 
value. 

"When Hamilton and the men of his time were con- 
sidering the establishment of the United States Mint, 
in 1792, the question presented was whether we 



352 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

should coin silver or gold, or both, and having deter- 
mined to utilize and coin both gold and silver, the 
.only remaining question was just how much silver 
should be put in the silver dollar, and how much gold 
in the gold dollar. It was agreed on all hands there 
must be just such an amount put into the silver dollar 
and the gold dollar as would make them exactly equal 
in commercial value ; for there was no man living at 
that time outside a mad house who entertained the 
idea that you could coin dollars of unequal intrinsic 
value and make them circulate side by side in any 
monetary system. For it is a law as old as monetary 
science, and as inexorable as the moving of the 
spheres, that if you have two dollars of unequal value 
the cheaper will be the only one that will circulate, 
and the more valuable will be driven out of circulation. 
"Mr. Baring said upon this subject: 'A very 
slight difference of one-tenth or one-quarter of one 
per cent, would determine the use of one metal or the 
other.' Our own history demonstrates the truth of 
this law. Under the ratio of 1 to 15, established in 
1 792, the two coins separated in a few years, because 
it was found that the commercial value and the mone- 
tary value did not correspond, and gold went out of 
circulation, and our coined silver was the only money 
remaining in circulation. In 1834 the ratio was 
changed to 16 to 1, but it was soon discovered that 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 353 

the commercial ratio did not then correspond with the 
monetary ratio, and the result was that silver was 
more valuable than gold, and went out of circulation, 
while gold became our only circulating metallic 
money. When the owner of 37lj/4 grains of pure 
silver could get more for that silver uncoined than he 
could by having it coined into a silver dollar, certainly 
he would not take it to the Mint of the United States 
to have its value lessened by being coined into money. 
So silver dollars went out of circulation. 

"In 1861 we were Hooded with a depreciated paper 
currency less valuable than either gold or silver, and 
the result was that it drove both gold and silver out 
of circulation, and they remained out of circulation 
until we resumed specie payments in 1879. 

"This people have not forgotten the battle for the 
resumption of specie payments, and they do not care 
to repeat that experience. It was a long journey, 
fraught with hardship and disaster to many individu- 
als, and had to be pursued in the face not only of 
Democratic opposition demanding the repeal of the 
Resumption Act and the continued non-payment of 
our unredeemed promises, but Parties sprang up in 
favor of fiat money and the wildest financial vagaries 
which, for the time being, threatened the credit and 
financial integrity of this Nation. Must we fight that 
battle over again ? . . . 



354 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

"We who favor the repeal of the Act of 1890 are 
the only real bimetallists, and we are pursuing the 
only course in my judgment by which bimetallism 
can be maintained. The free and unlimited coinage 
of silver at any of the ratios named will destroy 
bimetallism, and will reduce this country to a single 
standard, that of silver, and that depreciated, and I 
am suspicious that for this very reason some gentle- 
men are anxious for its triumph. The opening of the 
mints of the United States to the unrestricted minting 
for individuals of silver into legal dollars at any ratio 
to gold less than the commercial value of both metals, 
under the pretence of aiding the cause of bimetallism 
or for the purpose of establishing or maintaining 
bimetallism in the United States, is simply playing 
upon the sentiment and credulity of the American 
people. . . . 

"Let the people but once understand that all this 
talk about bimetallism is simply a cover to hide the 
obnoxious fact that it is silver monometalHsm that is 
the real purpose, or at least the certain result, and 
they will have none of it. There is no considerable 
portion of our people who would vote to place this 
country on a silver basis. The argument between the 
advantages of the two systems is a real, hving 
one. . . . 

"At one time a practice prevailed in England of 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 355 

clipping the coins and thereby depreciating their 
value. The English Government made that practice 
a felony punishable by death. Women were burned 
at the stake and men were dragged to the scaffold for 
clipping the coins of the realm. But it is now seri- 
ously proposed in the National House of Representa- 
tives of the American people to legalize an unlimited 
issue of debased currency. It is proposed that this 
great Government, which through all its perilous his- 
tory of the last thirty years kept faith with all its 
creditors, and stands today with a credit matchless 
and unimpaired, shall now enter upon the shoreless 
and fathomless sea of depreciated coinage, whose only 
harbor is National repudiation and individual bank- 
ruptcy, to the utter destruction of the Nation's credit 
and the prosperity of the citizen." 

Three days later the House repealed the Sherman 
Act, but the Senate delayed action until October 30, 
causing severe business depression throughout the 
country. When at last the Silver men surrendered, 
the expected relief did not come, owing to the fact 
that adverse trade conditions embarrassed the Treas- 
ury in its efforts to maintain the parity between gold 
and silver, and the Secretary was obliged to admit that 
the Treasury was spending beyond its income. The 
gold reserve had to be used not only for redemption 
but also for ordinary expenses. Secretary Carlisle 



356 BURROWS OF MICHIGAN [1874 

appealed to Congress for authority to sell bonds to 
supply the deficiency, but the Silver men blocked 
favorable action, demanding that the silver in the 
Treasury should be used with gold in redeeming the 
notes presented. 

In January, 1894, bids were asked for $50,000,000 
five per cent, ten year bonds, to be purchased with 
gold, with the announcement that minimum offers 
must include a premium of over seventeen per cent. ; 
but as the bonds were redeemable in "coin" and not 
specifically in gold, they did not prove especially 
attractive. They were at last disposed of, but as 
nearly half of the payments were made in gold with- 
drawn by the subscribers from the Treasury, the relief 
was only partial. By November the gold reserve had 
fallen so low that it became necessary to invite bids 
for a second $50,000,000 bond issue, and the result 
was almost identical. 

As these efforts to relieve the crisis had proved 
abortive, and the situation became more and more 
critical. President Cleveland called Mr. J. Pierpont 
Morgan to the White House in consultation. As a 
result, drastic action was taken. Congress being 
warned that unless an issue of gold interest-bearing 
bonds was immediately authorized an agreement 
would be entered into with private bankers for the 
purchase of gold. Congress did not act, and on Feb- 



1896] AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 357 

ruary 8, 1895, a contract was entered into with three 
important houses for the purchase of three and one- 
half milHon ounces of gold, payment to be made in 
bonds. An important clause in the contract stipu- 
lated that the lenders should use their influence to 
protect the Treasury against the withdrawals of gold, 
and the fact that this protection was accomplished 
was a striking tribute to Mr. Morgan's influence in the 
money markets of the world, — he was the Joshua, "at 
whose command the sun and moon stood still." By 
the time this contract expired conditions had again 
become normal, and business had revived. When, 
a year later. President Cleveland was again obliged to 
ask for an additional loan of $100,000,000, confi- 
dence was so far restored that bids received from pub- 
lic subscription covered the entire amount many times. 
When the elections of 1896 insured a return to a gold 
standard those who had hoarded gold again placed 
it in circulation, and the strain upon the Treasury was 
relieved. 



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